Maikalani Community Lecture: “Dr. Doug McCarter: Rock Wars – We can Win with Silicon”
6:30 p.m. at the Maikalani building in Pukalani, Maui. Free. Also streamed live online and on Second Life.
Present day technology does not provide detection or deterrence of many small to medium size asteroids. Documents show over twenty 200-500 Kiloton level blasts occurred since 2000 from small asteroids that were never detected until they exploded right before they hit the Earth. Traveling up to 7 times a speeding bullet, fortunately they either exploded high, over uninhabited land or over the oceans.
Humanity is at a crossroads with a tough decision to move forward with an aggressive plan of action. Today we have advanced our knowledge of silicon optical technology to a point to where we can be proactive vs. reactive. The first step is to upgrade the existing asteroid hunting ground telescopes to study the IR signatures of the asteroids and add a new array of silicon space telescopes on different orbits. Then add space drones with solar-powered high-energy lasers. Successful Detection and Deterrence can lead to capture and mining. We can use what could cause harm for good by mining precious minerals. Mankind is fundamentally a species of builders and explorers. Why stop now?