Thread: Asterod Apophis
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Old 12-June-2007, 03:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ara Pacis View Post
It's about 2-3 millions dollars US for a man in his prime, around 40 years old, according to airline insurance actuarial tables (IIRC).

Or you could look at it from human incentive perspective. How much money are you willing to pay to prevent your death from such an event?

Or look at it this way. The lifetime risk of being killed by lightning is 1 in 35,000 (according to the National Weather Service). The risk is on the same order as an Apophis impact. Would you spend all your money trying to reform the earth's atmosphere to avoid the possibility of lightning generation, or would you save your money and simply move indoors when a thunderstorm approaches?
...



If I knew ahead of time where it would strike, I would avoid being where the lightning is. The planet Earth can't be moved out of the way, however.

At "2 million per person", you'd think money would be no problem.



Why are so many people dead-set against altering Apophis' course? Is there some upside I'm missing?

ADDED: And why do they keep coming up with completely irrelevant and exaggerated comparisons? It's path is predictable, it can be altered, and the harm it might do is avaoidable. So...?
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