Free Panspermia Deorum by Hylton Smith Page A

misunderstanding or room for
doubt about what is going to happen in the next few days.”
    The murmurings
gave way to utter silence before he continued.
    “We are all
facing difficult years ahead. I can confirm, despite what anyone
else may have you believe, that an asteroid will impact the Earth
in 2039. Our latest tracking data clearly and unequivocally
demonstrate its trajectory. It is a fact . What can be done
about this? Well, we have researched various methods of dealing
with the problem and now they are narrowed down to three feasible
approaches. Let me deal with the simplest one first. If the other
two were to fail, we have a last line of defence in the form of
nuclear warheads to destroy the asteroid. That brings with it
unpredictable consequences, one of which could cause fragmentation,
and thus change the threat from a single impact into multiple
impacts. We have therefore allocated most of our research resource
to safer options. The favoured one is to impact the asteroid itself
when it is far enough away to eliminate immediate collateral damage
to our planet. There are a number of ways we can do this, and we
are still researching the ones which can deliver the best
reliability. The trade-offs with this method are distance and
accuracy. The work in hand also has to be geared to the optimum
time. Seven years may seem like more than enough time to figure
this out, but we must not forget that the asteroid would not be on
an impact course if it hadn’t been struck by another cosmic body.
So, we need be aware that this could happen again. There are
several possibilities, and I apologise in advance for any confusion
which follows, but we must take into account all manner of events
which could nullify our efforts.
    “If the
asteroid was bumped again as it heads for the Earth, we may not
have to do anything. But, we need to exercise caution here, because
we must be certain that it will not then collide with anything else
in the solar system which could put it back on impact trajectory
with our planet. Another scenario also has to be considered; if we
send our deflection force out into space too early only to find the
asteroid isn’t where it should have been, we still can’t rule out a
new collision which restores the threat. Therefore, a logical
conclusion would be to wait long enough to be sure that any
deflection attempt can be quantified in terms of altering the
asteroid’s course and that the new path is clear of further
possible incidents.
    “This is where
the third option comes in. Many of you are aware of our intention
to have an advance monitoring station out in the solar system to
help in gathering data on the asteroid continuously. What you do
not know is that I have decided that it won’t be an unmanned listening post, as was initially intended. We will launch a manned
craft with all the necessary tools to accomplish extremely
comprehensive, more accurate monitoring of the threat than we have
on Earth. However, the second objective of the crew apart from
setting up such crucial scanning programmes for the asteroid from
Mars orbit, is to land on the planet. This manned mission to Mars
was initially scheduled for 2033, but after many months of debate I
took the difficult decision to bring it forward. Whatever we may do
in a dedicated attempt to preserve life on Earth, things can go
wrong, and as the stakes are so high, I felt we needed to create a
second chance for the species to survive. Now, this is where I
really do want to avoid any misunderstanding. Is it completely safe
to bring the Mars landing so far forward? The simple answer is a
resounding NO! However, that will still be true in 2033, missions
like this are never free of danger. If Earth was to fall prey to an
impact, even if it wasn’t an extinction event, it would probably
kill off any chance to supply those already on Mars. So, other
launches of essential life supplies will follow in 2033, 2035,
2037, and hopefully by then we will have good