Originally posted by carolm:[...]What I'd really like to see is Chapter 62 of
Imbalance [which would imply that 61 had been posted and...]
. But I digress.
Um, parts 61
and 62 were posted far too long ago... but I take the point.
So if they were prepared for such an eventuality, they might send multiple nuclear tipped warheads?
Quite likely; the question is, could one of those warheads, necessarily smaller than the biggest weapon that a single missile could carry, do the job on its own? If yes, then the MIRV approach is a good one because it makes the targeting problem easier; if not, then it's a waste of effort because what is needed is the biggest bang on target. It's the equivalent of using a shotgun or a sniper rifle on a fast-moving animal with thick skin: if the shotgun can kill it, it's a better choice because there's more chance of some of the shot hitting; if not, you use the most powerful bullet you have because you need to put the beast down.
So the optimum solution for Nightfall is to launch as many warheads as you have that can destroy the asteroid if only a single one goes off. In the case of ASGARD, they seem to have only got off a single shot, which missed, so the warhead(s) became irrelevant.
I did do a bit of research today and it seems the rock that destroyed the dinosaurs is believed to be about 6 miles across?! Is that right? So roughly half the size of Nightfall? Or did I read the article wrong? I had kids asking questions at the same time...
That's the figure I found and I have no reason to doubt it. So yes, Nightfall was almost 3 times larger, with a mass of anything up to 27 times that of the "Dinosaur Killer". To say that Superman literally saved the world is in no way hyperbole.
What if there was no Superman [and no Bruce Willis/Ben Affleck] to stop it? What would the best course of action be?
Bend over and kiss your backside goodbye! Have a look at the
Ground Zero site. DC once said that Metropolis was in Delaware, so try centring the boom on that state and use the "Asteroid Impact" option -- always remembering that this simulates the effect of a 6-mile asteroid, and that Nightfall could have been 25 times heavier...
We're going to ignore the logic [for the moment at least] about pushing it out of the way v. ramming it as hard as Clark can. If he did just nudge it out of the way, I can't see him getting the amnesia [which was kind of the point of the ep to an extent] unless he ran out of oxygen, then maybe...
That's what I meant about if he'd been advised properly, most of the episode would have been moot; certainly the B-plot, which was the
real meat of the episode, would have gone altogether. OTOH, it would have given me more faith in the supposed "scientists" of L&C's world, most of whom seemed to be complete twits or completely mad, Dr Klein notwithstanding.
Phil
