Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "Did The US Accidentally Blast A Manhole Cover Into Space? | Random Thursday" video.

  1. Structure, mass, and the direction of travel. Some unconnected thoughts on topic. Solid steel (or cast iron) is a lot different than an iron dense chunk of a planet or moon. It is far more durable. Lots of meteorites hit the ground. What burns or sublimes away is the non-metallic part. Large meteoroids can make it through the atmosphere barely changed (other than the change in nomenclature), except for a scorched outer layer. Infalling meteorites create a compression zone as they push at the air, compressing it, making of it a serious obstacle (especially to carbonaceous chondrites). It is nothing like the concussion wave from a nuclear device, of course, which rate of expansion exceeds that of the solid object's acceleration by a comfortable margin, making it likely that the object is not severely affected by the air ahead in its path. It would be worse on its backside, with it glowing in the rapidly cooling heat from the expanding blast. Science Friction: Some have postulated a nuclear powered antimeteor cannon, using the principles of the manhole cover into orbit gambit. That would be stupid, when detonating nuclear devices anywhere on the planet creates an area denial hazard that lasts for centuries. Put them on the Moon? Sure! Another large--scale weapon thought experiment is the Fusion Whistle. In this idea, a fusion bomb is detonated in a specially prepared chamber with a tunnel exit that is also a wave guide. The product is a semi--coherent plasma jet that could be used against anything in its path. Space Goats. Vogons. Mars Attacks-ians. Orbital Space Habitats in rebellion against ground-based authority. Again: it's stupid. Use the Moon for all your future nuclear disasters, please. Japan and Parts of the old Soviet Union, plus Sweden and Denmark, and other people with a healthy respect for the increased rates of all cancers around nuclear facilities everywhere (ya just gotta laugh at the McMurdo affair--where'd the waste from THAT go, I wonder?), will thank you forevermore.
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  2. "Let's play god!" "What about the implications?" "gods don't care about implications!" "The good ones do."
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