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What looks like the last question of the night
Hello
- Hi
- Hi, what's your name? - Jacob
- And how old are you, Jacob?
- 9 - You're 9 !
Jacob,
I was 9 when I first discovered the universe
Or actuallly, the universe discovered me.
I was in a planetarium and the light went out
and the stars came out
and I was 9 and my head exploded.
Not literally,
- Ok, in fact you wouldn't be here if...
- Yeah, Yeah
- So, you have a question? - Yeah
- Ok - Why don't they just want to shoot a chunk of
random material at the asteroid Apophis
and either destroy or get out of the
collision course with the earth?
- Why don't we just bomb it out of the way,
is what you're saying... - Yeah, exactly - Yeah, ok
So here's the problem Here's the problem
Here in America...
He's a kid, he doesn't need to sit down, he's a kid
I'm a grown up, I need to sit down
Here in America
we have a lot of bombs and stuff like that
And we're really good at blowing stuff up,
what we're not as good is at knowing where the pieces go afterwards.
So suppose you go and blow it up,
and here's a huge asteroid, now it breaks into two chunks.
So now, that map is not just that chunk
burying the west coast of the united states
now another chunk goes and hits the atlantic ocean
and buries the east coast
Now you have to evacuate two coasts
So, yes you want to completely destroy it,
but it's harder to know how to do it effectively.
So you nudge it...
- Yeah, then comes the second part of my question, which is... - Ah, ok
- Why don't we get to shoot a chunk of rockets that go...
This is... the clipboard is the asteroid and this is head to the rock
- Do you have a clipboard? - A folder!
- You're carrying on a clipboard, I'm just saying...
- Ok, this is the chunk it just goes...
... and it falls off in the space in the middle of like the sun.
- So here's another problem
here's another problem
We don't really know for sure...
...how strong the asteroid is, in its material
So ... watch an example...
Let's say there was a big pile of dough on the table
Not money dough. I'm talking like...
- Cookie dough? - Yeah yeah, like
- Cookie dough - Cookie dough
Pancake, no no
bread dough, ok?
Now I wanna move the dough out of the way
and I take my two fingers and I push it.
What happens to my fingers?
they go inside the dough
They don't push the whole dough!
Because the dough is not ...
It's...
the dough is...
- It's a non-newtonian solid
- It's a non-newtonian solid
Exactly!
You try to push it and it absorbs your push.
And we think some asteroids are not solid
You all can just go home now,
I'm having a conversation with the kid.
Some asteroids we think are not actually solid,
they're piles of rubble
We think they're piles of rubble
- But how do they stay together?
- Because of its own gravity.
That's the thing, so its gravity kind of hold it together,
as a pile of rubber
But you push over here, and this rubber goes away
and this rubble stays.
So we don't want to risk the future of our species
thinking that the asteroid is a solid object
that we can just push
Aaaah
Now you want to get rid of it? (actually you all can go... I'm still...)
you want to push it and shove it into the sun?
There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids out there.
That would be a huge job pushing them into the sun
So we think it's easier to just keep ducking, ok?
- Now I've a second thing...
Why don't they just take a huge sheet of like metal - yeah
- even if it's a non-newtonian solid but...
... it hits, it will solidify, and then the chunk of metal would just go in
... since it's bigger than the asteroid itself or might be...
... at least as big as, and don't get into the thing and just push it ...
- So what you want is like a big ... a sweeping blanket
- Yes, exactly
- Thank you, I'm glad I understand what you're saying
You want a big,
You want a big,
you want to just sweep way all the bad stuff
I mean, maybe one day that's what we'll do
I foresee a future, and you're the right age that you could lead this
Do you want to be the first trillionare?
Figure out a way to mine asteroids.
They have ingredients that are rare on earth but common on asteroids,
Platinum, gold, iridium...
All these elements that we need in our manufacturing world.
You figure out how to mine them.
Then you know how to go in them, come out of them, move them, deflect them...
Then the government... tell me your name again?
Jacob
So then the government says: Hey Jacob,
that asteroid you're working on is heading towards earth,
can you deflect it 7 inches to the right?
And you shout: Sure mister president.
And you move it 7 inches to the right.
(Or madam president)
you move it 7 inches to the right.
And...
so, once you know how to go to asteroids,
manipulate them, mine them, move material back and forth,
then the solar system becomes your...
... your sandbox.
You can move things around,
and there's no more any fear of impact.
And you wouldn't be one of these idiots who when interviewed
when the asteroid was coming
saying "I'll go and get drunk on the beach",
because YOU would figure out how to save the world.
Thank you Jacob.
And thank you all.
Thank you all.