Well, the US has the know-how to solve the problem, but not the resources.
Solution: International conference, invite all major powers and draw up a plan for constructing the necessary He3 mining facilities and orbital assemblies for putting a mass driver/VASIMR/nuclear pulse/a billion Xexon arc thrusters/whatever onto Leviathan, with each country contributing resources/manufacturing/testing facilities. Stream this conference live throughout the world to provide an incentive for each country not to porkbarrel too much of it.
This may need some concessions in order to get everyone together in the first place, e.g. offer to the USS to withdraw some of the peacekeeping forces on the Korean peninsula if the USS will replace them with their own troops.

>>296634
According to this information, the imminent destruction of the Earth is not our only problem.

We have an idea on how to save the planet, but we lack the fiscal and material resources needed for said project. Also, if we do manage to succeed with our plan, the nation would be financially doomed even before the predicted date.

I propose that we withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and Syria, but leave the operation in Korea, for now. Also, we should close down most foreign bases, yet leave enough to still have some presence around the world. Along with that, we should stop all advancement on military technologies not needed for the proposed project and concentrate on maintaining what we do have. These measures should help our economy stay afloat a little bit longer.

It would be prudent, I believe to also start a major propaganda campaign that states to our people that we have a plan and it involves saving everybody. Apathy must be reduced and unity must be increased. If successful, it should boost our productivity, assisting any large scale project as well as the nations GDP.

Perhaps, if the propaganda campaign is as successful as I hope, we might have to think about raising taxes through the roof.

For further consideration, I would like to get a more detailed look at how our nations budget is divided and what is costing us the most, at this time.

I suck at skimming, because I could not find it, but due to knowing the distance of Leviathan, I got that it will hit in 2030/2031. Is that correct?

>>296634
What's the situation in Afghanistan, Syria and Korea?
Also, how did the 2nd Korean War go down?
I'm against the massive downsizing of worldwide forces proposed by >>296655, though the military could use a few cuts here and there, which could then be used to try and pay patrt of our debt.
I suppose we could close some European bases down and downsize our armed forces. We don't need a million men at the moment.

I also approve of >>296646's proposal for an international conference. Keep it somewhat secret what the actual topic is (The Heim engine, and us all working together to get shit done), but make clear to the world that we have a plan, and it will save everybody.


I would also like to know the state of our nuclear power plants. Are we running any Thorium-based plants (ie the awesome kind of fission), or still normal uranium/plutonium based plants?

>>296678
I am not so much proposing we downsize our forces, rather that we halt any further improvements or additional military projects. As well as, I guess you are right, downsizing our influence out side of our own country or where it gives us a direct benefit(like maintaining good relations in Asia with the troops in Korea). By no means do I want us to actually reduce the size of our forces. Relocation would be preferred.

Also, right now, with our monetary situation in such bad straights, I think maintaining our current military should be the limit of most of our military expenditures, not improving it(as I presume we would have kept doing to remain a powerful military force).

We need money and with out seeing a our budget allocations, it is hard to see where we can get some quickly. Some additional economic project will probably be needed to stay afloat and turn our economy around, but with out funds, those are also going to be difficult.

>>296634
>At the expense of ruining such thought, intellectual postulation, the amount of weapons' grade plutonium needed to power a weapon or series of weapons capable of destroying or veering Leviathan out of the trajectory of Earth would be astronomical and not within the scope of the United States current capacity.

A single 15 ton craft would be enough.
A survivable breeding population of 5,000 genetically distinct individuals would be approximately 400 tons in body mass alone.

If it is at all possible to save our species with the Heim engine then deflecting Leviathan is the most efficient decision.

Also? Plutonium is a horrible choice for powering a drive. Thorium would be a far more sensible option, and is abundant on earth.
If we can use He3 then H2/H3+Li fusion is a viable power source, so there's no problem.

>>296697
Right. I suppose we could downsize some of our stuff. I mean, who needs 12 supercarriers? In addition to how many normal aircraft carriers?
Those are needlessly expensive and cost billions each, per year.
Lowering the military's budget for new superguns, I agree to that. They don't need that stuff if mankind faces extinction. Some downsizing is needed, though, I say.
If we manage to cut just 20% of the military's spending, that's around 140 billion we can use for basically whatever.
The entire budget needs cuts, though. Streamline medicare and social security, stop the retarded 'war on drugs' (or slow it down), et cetera. Reduce the entire budget by 10%, we get over 340 billion to use. Most of it probably to get rid of those goddamned debts. Jesus.

>>296714
1: It's a lot cheaper to build a few 15t KIs than actual ships intended to ferry people to safety.
2: Superpower status doesn't mean shit if we're all dead.

Right now we need to get people spending money. Lets simplify the tax code so nobody pays taxes on any income valued below $100,000 2010 dollars, then an increasing percentage for every dollar earned above that. That'll prompt people to start buying consumer goods.

Also, lets start sending notices out to people telling them that their families have not been selected for evacuation. A month or so after that we'll take up a collection for "Project: Poseidon", and solicit funding from wherever we can find it - we start running emotionally manipulative ads everywhere telling people that our top minds have founded "Project: Poseidon" as a way to save the lives of everybody's children.
People will send money even if they think we're lying because they'll latch on to any glimmer of hope.

Step two is getting in touch with our allies and getting them on-board with the plan.

Naturally, if private industry builds a Heim-equipped ship then we're going to seize it and ram it into Leviathan. We'll then credit them for their contributions to saving the world.

Increase funding to NASA; have it start working out optimal impact vectors to safely neutralize the Leviathan threat.

>>296723
Telling people they haven't been selected seems like a horrible idea, even if its only for a short time. Resentment about who they feel DID get selected would be out of control. Best case Apathy grows substantially, worst case we've created an artificial class war with mass uprisings.

We need money and the people's support, or else this fails. We need propaganda. People need to think this isn't a natural disaster: this is a war. Leviathan needs to be made into a greater monstrosity than Hitler. Influence popular religious speakers: "This is a challenge from God, and he wants us to live."

Once we have the people's support, we need people to buy Bonds. Lots of Bonds.

Maybe offer China schematics for the Hiem's in exchange for a near-complete elimination of our debt to them. If they bite they bite, if they don't they don't.

>>296723
I think it would be smarter to start a propaganda campaign in which we state that we DO have a solution which WILL save everybody, but that everybody needs to work towards it, support it and help finance it. People already think they are screwed, no need to add it it, risking civil war. Better to give hope and exploit that for monetary gain.

We might also be in a position to begin even larger scale exploitation of foreign resources of unaffiliated states. They would probably lack the position to do anything about the impending disaster and we could offer them a solution for devastating(for them) resource exploitation deals. Good for our economy, bad for theirs, but that is life. Time would be of the essence for this, though. If other states or organisations get to them first, offering more favorable deals, we might lose this opportunity.

>>296678
>What's the situation in Afghanistan, Syria and Korea?

In Afghanistan, the situation is discouraging at best and hellish at its worst. Ongoing operations have been instated in some for or fashion since 2001, with either side periodically committing more troops at varying intervals.

I believe the correct term for the current situation be a quagmire.

Syria was just one of the many nations during 2011 Pan-Middle Eastern Democratic movement to have rebelled against their dictatorial leaders. While some ended peacefully (Tunisia, Egypt) and others have ended after limited engagement (Libya). Syria, however, is a special case. NATO allies became involved inside of the nation, with the United States taking lead. However, perhaps in an attempt to weaken the United States power in the world, terrorists groups (possibly funded by Saudi wahabbists or Iran--the information is still incomplete) started to pour into the nation. Even after the government had been liberated and became democratic, extremists still continue to draw out combat operations log after the United States became involved in December 2011.

Yet, current analysis shows that we are winning in Syria. While surrender by remaining pockets of terrorists organizations isn't any time in the immediate future, we've got them on the run.

The region formally known as North Korea declared war on South Korea on December 25, 2014. Soon after, a UN declaration passed and the World descended upon North Korea. The war was quick, but brutal. North Korean forces managed to detonated three nuclear devices. One was a missile that was launched at the Republic of Japan. While it managed to missed its intended target of Tokyo, it exploded in its waters off shore, creating severe environmental damage. The other two were detonated inside of North Korea herself toward the end of the short conflict--the everlasting legacy of ill-tempered tyrant.

The United States, and by-proxy, the UN's involvement has mostly dealt with the clean up and rebuilding the Korean peninsula after the war. In the early days, the United States and her allies also dealt with pockets of Juche Loyalists, though now these are few and far between.

Regardless, all these efforts have been called into question, given the threat that Leviathan poses to civilization.

>>Are we running any Thorium-based plants (ie the awesome kind of fission), or still normal uranium/plutonium based plants?

The United States is currently operating one Thorium power plant on a trial basis. <Analyzing...> Media analysis suggests that its great success, though it does have its green-minded detractors. It has been implied in the blogosphere that these detractors are mostly an AstroTurf group funded by oil and green energy lobbyists, though there's currently no intelligence to back up this theory.

The rest of American's fissions plants run uranium/plutonium.

>"Let's do things! Yeah! Things!"
In order to make your any action official, it must be called to a vote. Voters can vote Aye (in favor), Nay (opposed) or they can abstain.
Votes, regardless of who's participating, is majority based. So, two Ayes and a Nay means it passes. In the event of a tie (and since we're merging the two chambers of Congress for the sake of playability), Vice President Mitt Romney (R) will break the tie. Bills maybe vetoed by President Mike Huckabee (R), but considering the nature of what's being discussed, that's unlikely.

It should also be noted that after three or so bills pass, the game move forward by three months, aka one turn. The math may be wrong, but the Earth dies on the first turn of 2029.

>>296943
>Afghanistan
Basically, it's fucked.
Keeping troops there is needlessly expensive. Moving out after all this time may be seen as weakness. I'd rather be seen as weak and save the world than waste money.
>Syria, Korea
Hokay, a decent situation. I suppose we can stay in those two, though downsizing the forces in Korea may be an option, with a little more involvement by the Ruskies and perhaps China.

>Lobbyists
Did we hit peak oil? Or were any new large oil deposits discovered? Because seriously, with oil getting scarce and 'Green' energy (do you know how much chemical waste is created by solar cells?) being nowhere near feasible for the time being, Thorium is the best option there is. Our own reserves could sustain the entire US for at least a hundred years, so it's the powersource of the future.
Propaganda up this shit, Thorium or nothing.

>Bills
Okay. I propose two (preliminary) bills.
Bill one: 'Thorium all over', 'Tao', because I feel like making a silly name. Basically, this bill will mandate either refitting current fission plants, or future ones to run on Thorium, specifically the 'Molten salt reactor' model, if deemed good enough. Should our scientists come up with something better, that's good, too.

Bill #2: 'Move the heavens', in which we attempt to work together with certain other nations such as the PRC, EU and Russia to not only get the Heim Drive working, but also do one of two things: If feasible, attack drive to Leviathan, move the fucker off-course. Otherwise, get a projectile with a weight of 15 metric tons and slam it from a slight angle (10-30 degrees) into Leviathan to not only blow it up, but also change its course.

Suggestions to change the bills appreciated.

>>296952
I vote Aye on bill #1, abstain on bill #2.


I propose a Military balance bill(Bill #3, I guess), which requires all forces in Afghanistan and Syria(does not matter if we can win, we need money, so fuck the Syrians) to be withdrawn, leaving only our forces in Korea, though they should be reduced at least 50%. This bill would also entail a halt on all non-essential(like new tank designs, enlargement of the fleet, more weapons, etc.) military R&D and enhancement projects. Any further military spending for the foreseeable future should only concentrate on maintaining our existing forces and nothing more. This bill would not require the number of our forces to be reduced as becoming to weak in this hectic time might be risky. Most of our larger vessels, like nuclear submarines or carriers would be put on standby and crews would be rotated between active ships to maintain experience. Military doctrine needs to be changes as well, to fit with the material changes of this bill. Added emphasis on defensive and reactive warfare with the consideration of what IS available, not what might become or will be available.

Is it possible to get some vague budget graph or explanation?

>>296962
Voting Aye on Bill #3.

Voting aye on #1 and #2, nay on #3. As an alternative to #3, I propose another bill in which we pull out of Afghanistan, then follow >>296714.

Query: Can we vote on our own bills? Or is that assumed to be a 'yes' anyways?

Aye on bills 1, 2, and 3, as well as >>296714.

This is kind of interesting. Like most problems in the world, solving the meteor won't be too difficult with a concerted effort. The thing to do is to see if we can turn the US back into a superpower. That's the true objective. OP, keep at this quest. I'm really interested in all this Civ-style geopolitical business.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html After spending hours searching about on this great internet of ours, this is the closest thing I could come up with that wasn't stilted in either to the left (certain Republicans and Tea Party members excluded) or to the right (certain anarchists and PBR drinkers excluded. This is, of course, not exact numbers, but I figured it was a close enough approximation to get a gist of where the budget stands.

I'll go back to being FREE here soon, but not right now.

TheOlderOne 2011/04/16(Sat)21:38 No. 297292 ID: 263f99
File 130301512641.png - (103.29KB , 320x246 , 6a00e54f8c22b788340105370e9458970b-320pi.png )

>>296952
>Peak Oil?
Peak oil did transpire, though its impact was lessened by extensive off-shore drilling, utilizing oil shale up in Canada and the slow, but steady conversion to electric cars. This has allowed the price of oil to hover around $160 dollars per barrel.

>>296987
>Voting on own bills.
It is assumed that you're voting Aye the bill you've proposed.

>Bill #1: T.A.O.
Aye: 4
Nay: 0
Abstain: 1

The "Thorium All Over" Bill has passed and is now being electronically submitted to the president.

Bill #2: Move the Heavens
Aye: 3
Nay: 0
Abstain: 1

The Move The Heavens Bill has been passed and is now being electronically submitted to the president.

Bill #3: Military Balance Bill
Aye: 3
Nay: 1
Abstain: 0

The Military Balance Bill has been passed and is now being electronically submitted to the president.

Because of the swift action taken by this Congress, you are allowed to submit one more bill before this turn ends! Congrats!

TheOlderOne 2011/04/17(Sun)00:37 No. 297311 ID: f01ac4
File 130302583475.jpg - (217.43KB , 1024x768 , white-house.jpg )

The President has been signed into law:

The TAO Bill.
The "Move the Heavens" Bill.

The president is currently reluctant to either sign or veto the Military Balance Bill. While he agrees America can't afford to be in Afghanistan much longer, he see a complete withdraw from Syria as betraying our allies in the Middle East.

Also, perhaps due to the nature of these dark times, its been suggested in the certain media (such as the Colbert Report and Daily Kos) that President Mike Huckabee (R) is reluctant to leave the Middle East because of his faith, Southern Baptist Christianity, belief in the end of days and the Battle of Armageddon.

Given the nature of Leviathan, its easy to see his sentiment, no matter how incorrect he may be.

Even so, he'd like for you remove any mention of Syria.

>>297311
Syria, sure, fine. Downsize the forces there as needed (or rather, as not needed), we do have the terrorists on the run and all.
If he'd like to fight at Armageddon (a tiny-ass village somewhere in the middle east, I believe, I don't know my bible facts all that well), he's free to do so.

For the fourth bill, which is of course awesome, I propose attempting to streamline the entire goddamned system. Too much bureaucracy, too little gets done. Our Republican President may not like this, but with a too small government, things get bogged down by red tape, 5,000 different agencies, et cetera. The bureaucracy needs to get downsized, but the government's role in everything strengthened, if only a little.
Not only does this give the small people an easier time with getting their shit done (and our agencies will hopefully work faster), but due to higher speed and efficiency with reduced size, billions could be saved.
I do, however, have no idea what parts of the bureaucracy this should apply to, and thus request the other senators to figure this out if they approve of this bill.

Using this link, provided earlier by TheOlderOne: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html

Also, taking a name now, because my IP apparently keeps changing, and with it my ID.

>>297344
No, we don't need to appease Huckabee. A veto can be overturned by a 2/3 majority, and our vote actually carried a 3/4 majority in the direction of "aye."

As for increasing bureaucratic efficiency, how about we create a computer program that monitors all government spending and investigates potentially corrupt or wasteful use of funds? The problem with having a human being or human agency perform this task is that people are corruptible, but if the program's source code is made continuously visible to congress and all changes are logged, then foul play will be avoidable, and the code will do exactly what it's supposed to do. Along with this bill, we will levy hefty fines for all wasteful use of taxpayer dollars and very severe penalties for corruption.

Also, on an unrelated note, we really gotta do something to empty out our prisons, 'cause that's a huge waste of money and it turns many productive members of society into burdens.

>>297537
Allow inmates to advance their education while in prison. Partner with established educational entities to provide the required resources to do so.

Trial programs doing this very thing have been wildly successful, decreasing the average recidivism rate of participants from mid-eighties to low-teens.
These programs were terminated due to the public being indignant about giving things to criminals. These complaints can be safely ignored, as the results have shown to be well worth it.

Decriminalizing marijuana would further serve to reduce prison populations. Going the extra step to legalize it is not needed, as infractions increase revenue via tickets and do not increase prison population.

I request that these two proposals be made into a bill: The "Unscrew Prisons And Strengthen Our Workforce" act.

>>297537
>>297539
I approve of both of these posts.
But we'll have to decide for either fixing prisons, or bureaucracy. For the time being, at least.
Next turn we can do the other bill. Which one first?

TheOlderOne 2011/04/18(Mon)04:37 No. 297562 ID: 8caeb3
File 130312666488.png - (69.64KB , 714x714 , 30u2typ.png )

>>297537
... <Analyzing. .. Anyalyzing.>

Are you honestly suggesting a bill that would make a baby brother for myself that analyzes income and expenditures?! That.. That would be fantas--*brrzzzzoooooooooorrrrt*

<Error 457: Attempting to Influence Legislation. Rebooting.... Scanning for viruses, Trojans and programming inconsistencies ... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scan clear. Loading F.R.E.E program.>

Oh.. Oh my. I'm sorry about that. Where.. where were we?

>The Nature of Vetoes.
While the bill did pass in congress with an overwhelming 3/4 majority, it doesn't mean it would automatically be made into the law. The President (if he chose to do so) would still have to pass or veto the bill. By doing so, the bill would effectively have to be re-voted on in Congress' next turn, which would mean one less bill to be created for that turn.

Would you like amend the bill or shall it be sent up to President Huckabee with the currently language in tact?

>>297539
Senator Seven's "Unscrew Prisons And Strengthen Our Workforce" Act is now on the floor and is waiting to be voted upon.

>>297562
So we'll lose one bill...Hrm. Are the savings from Syria worth that? I'm not sure, and I'd tend towards 'No, they're not. We're saving massively via Korea and Afghanistan already, after all.
I'd vote to not remove any mention of Syria, but to downsize forces by, say, 20% or so. Reasonable, I'd say. And if them terrorists gain ground again, we can always send new men after them.

I vote Aye on Senator Seven's bill.

>>297562
Keep our current forces in Syria, pull out of Afghanistan, pull some forces out of Korea.

It's hilarious to me, and also quite revealing, that some nerds on the internet can run a simulation of the US 20 times better than real, professional politicians can run the real US. Too many ulterior motives and unclear winning conditions for them, I guess.

Aye for unscrew prisons and strengthen workforce, abstain on reforming the war bill.

>>297597
Actually, the way we're working, things would never work IRL. It's not just ulterior motives and unclear winning conditions, but also personal agendas, party propaganda, public expecation, military pressure and a million other factors that make it utterly impossible for Congress to actually get something really good and beneficial done. Especially the difference between the Dems and Reps is so huge that they'll block each other out of habit.

But anyways. That's for a thread on politics, not this thread, in which things are simplified.

Aye on both Unscrew Workforce and the 20% troop reduction amendment to the Military Balance bill.

>>297562
>Senator Seven's "Unscrew Prisons And Strengthen Our Workforce" Act is now on the floor and is waiting to be voted upon.

Aye

Also, amend the Military Bill to gradually reduce the amount of troops in Syria

>>297562
Aye on the "Unscrew Prisons And Strengthen Our Workforce" bill.

>Proposal to Amend Military Bill be redusing Troop levels in Syria by 20%

Aye: 3
Nay: 0
Abstain: 0

The Amendment to the Military Balance Bill has been passed and is now being electronically submitted to the president.

>Bill #4: Unscrew Prisons And Strengthen Our Workforce Act (UPASOW)

Aye: 6
Nay: 0
Abstain: 0

The UPASOW Act has been approved and is now being electronically sent to the President.

TheOlderOne 2011/04/18(Mon)23:39 No. 297709 ID: 1f177c
File 130319514058.png - (167.94KB , 500x500 , 500px-Seal_Of_The_President_Of_The_United_States_O.png )

The Office of the President has voted the following bills into law:

The UPASOW Act.
The Military Balance Bill (and its proposed amendment!)

New Turn to start later. In the meantime, enjoy the discussion thread here: http://www1.tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/345196.html

>>297603
That's what I meant by unclear winning conditions. "Winning" for a given politician X is, for example, ensuring his party's power, making lots of money, and driving his particular political agenda. Not so for politician Y. Anyway, you're pretty much saying exactly what I would have said if I had gone on longer.

TheOlderOne 2011/04/19(Tue)02:46 No. 297723 ID: 1f177c
File 130320638890.jpg - (27.02KB , 400x400 , 2019 Second Turn.jpg )

Welcome to Turn 2: 2019.

Those bright and shiny new faces in congress managed to pass a series of bills will some ease. Among those was the Bill #2, Move The Heavens, which called for multilateral discussions about weaponizing the Heim Drive and slamming it into Leviathan.

It was the Move the Heavens bill that attracted the most attention from the mass media. Once it was signed directly into law, many Americans (and by proxy the citizens of Earth) became ecstatic, with productivity gaining a slight boost and apathy dropping a little as well.

Interestingly, most Americans remain cynical about the project. They don't understand the exact nature of what's happening other than White House Press Secretary stating "We Have a Plan" while refusing address the exact specifics <i>of</i> the plan "because details have yet to be hammered out by the international community".

There has been conspiracy theories (in regards to this new bill) about releasing neuro-toxin into the world's water and/or air supply that would either keep the population blissful or quietly kill of everyone. It has yet to gain any serious traction, but given the times, people are having difficulty rejecting it out right.

There is also a small, but vocal group of fatalistic Christians known as the "Westboro Baptist Church" is proclaiming that attempting to "save humanity by means of unnatural and sinful science" goes against the "God's willful and rightful judgment against Faggots". This speculation has been outright ridiculed by various members of the Media (including those affiliated with the Religious Right) as well as an overwhelming majority of Americans. Even with this in mind, the CIA is keeping tabs on the church to ensure that they don't resort to acts of domestic terror.

The Thorium All Over Bill passed unceremoniously will little mention in the media, though the company that was running the experimental Thorium energy planet (Madison Gas and Electric) stocks have jumped impressively high. The company announced that its going to continue to strive and invest in more Thorium plants for Wisconsin and the United States at large. Other energy conglomerates are expected to follow suit. However, the full effects of such a project won't be felt until turn 1 of 2021.

The Military Balance Bill garnered some attention from the Media as well, but was overshadowed by the Move the Heavens Bill. Certain members of the Right were furious over the United States pulling out of Afghanistan and the downsize of troops in Syria. The Religious Right see this as "retreating from the inevitable battle of Armageddon", while most other political spheres see this as welcomed news (with some complaint that not enough was done to fully withdrawal from Syria). The full effect of this project will be felt by turn 3 of this year.

The UPASOW Act completely fell under the radar of the Media with the exception of the marijuana advocacy group NORML releasing a simple, one word press statement in regards to the subject: "Finally!" The effects it has on the prison population as well as the increased revenue of government expenditures would be felt until turn 1 of 2020.

Continued...

Ugh, Those religious nuts are at it again.

Seriously, what does a METEOR HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO HOMOSEXUALITY? IS THE SPACE ROCK GAY OR SOMETHING?

Is there no course available to shut these morons up?

>>297725
Nothing that wouldn't result in a massive outrage of the public, and solidify any conspiracy theories about us killing everyone off and shit.

TheOlderOne 2011/04/19(Tue)04:27 No. 297728 ID: 0f13ca
File 130321245280.gif - (282.02KB , 1061x843 , Elmo.gif )

"Hi, I'm Elmo!" proclaimed a cheery, familiar voice.

A gray, husky figured stepped onto that nostalgic set, glancing down briefly to find his view before looking at the camera and stating in a jarringly, unnaturally happy tone, "...and I'm Secretary of State Newt Gingrich."

The director, sitting in his chair behind the camera lowered his face into his palm. "Cut," he grumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

The man in control of the shaggy gray Muppet lowered his arm down and looked over at the director, "I swear, I hit my mark this time!"

"You're doing fine, Kevin. You've been doing fine. The problem is with you, Mr. Gingrich. Could, I dunno, be a little more emotive?"

Newt Gingrich was about to open his mouth and spew out something much more hateful than what the citizens of Sesame Street were used to, but they were all saved by the ringing of a smart phone. Newt answered promptly.

"Hello?" He held up one finger toward the film crew and the director yelled "Take five people!" before grumbling and wandering off to the snack table.

"Yes, Mr. President. I'm at the shooting right now," he answered. He continued, "Pretty dismal. I can't believe we live in a age where we have to remind children to be happy and have fun. That and the director is starting to get on my nerves."

Newt would pause and listen to his phone, pacing around in small circles and idly looking about the aging set as he listen to him. He'd eventually reply, "You know I can't leave the states right now, even if it is the Leviathan conference, my wife's--" he forced himself to pause as the president spoke once more. He cleared his throat a little and stated, "I'm high profile too, you know. I'm sure some punk from the Huffington Post was following me around--"

Again, Newt Gingrich forced himself to pause. The anger was starting to swell inside of him, but he swallowed it. Even so, he couldn't help but to think to himself That could have been me in that fucking seat. That could have been bossing little piss-ant shits like you around! Of course, this wasn't what came out of his mouth, "Mr. President. I recommend that we should seen the Deputy to this private conference. She's low profile enough to keep the media off our backs, but she can get the job done. Do you want to call her or do you want to call her?"

Once he heard the President's answer, he grinned and sighed contently, "Thank you, Mr. President. If you need me for anything else, you have my number. Talk to you later."

He'd hang up the phone and turned to director holding a small tray of assorted cheeses and finger sandwiches. "This is what I was talking about, Newt! Natural, happy emotions!"

Mr. Grigrich retorted, "I mean this in the most polite manner I can muster right now: Go fuck yourself."

Continued. Special Thanks to a dear friend for giving me the idea for this scene!

TheOlderOne 2011/04/19(Tue)05:29 No. 297735 ID: 0f13ca
File 130321614791.jpg - (49.82KB , 740x513 , business_woman_with_group.jpg )

Mrs. Brandenburg arrived in Volgograd, Russian Federation, Union of Sovereign States all but two hours ago. She barely had time to get things situated in her hotel room before she was pulled into the conference call. She mumbled to herself. "Good God. Looks like I'm not going to get visit the Battle of Stalingrad museum."

She made her way across down via taxi, arriving at the special conference hall at the Yuzhnaya Hotel in the city's center. The other members of her special envoy were already there. She couldn't get their names right half of the time because many of them would quit after a few months. It wasn't because she was intolerable, but it was that slow approach of Leviathan (or, at least that what she told herself).

She sat down at that her table, marked with a small US flag and a small array of ear buds. Michelle popped one in. A waiter made his way over to her table and asked if she like anything to drink. "Water's fine, thanks."

By the time she got her water, the meeting was already underway. The presenter of the event, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, began talked about the Leviathan, the Heim Drive and the nature of this meeting. It wasn't nothing that Michelle didn't already know.

Mr. Lavrov then spoke (which was translated through your ear-bud), "I'd like to turn the floor over to Deputy Secretary of State Michelle Brandenburg, who will present us with the United States' plan on solving the Leviathan crisis."

You fine folks are now controlling Deputy Secretary of State Michelle Brandenburg.

>>297723
Hell yeah, successful bills are successful!

>>297728
I like that man's style.

>>297735
Okay, what do we have?
-Heim Engine
A drive capable of propelling an object to a significant percentage of the speed of light, potentially up to .75 c.
-Physics
Going from earlier calculations made by >>296270 and others, several projectiles with a mass of 1.5 metric tons (or dozens with 150 kilograms) should be capable to annihilate sufficient amounts of Leviathan's mass that it would no longer be a grave danger to humanity. As long as we can reduce the individual parts to less than, say, some meters in diameter, we're good.
Alternatively, and as preferred option, we can try to attach a Heim Engine to the asteroid itself, moving it off-course and potentially into the sun or jupiter. Considering that it moves at roughly 1 AU (astronomical unit - mean distance sun-earth) per 40 days (39.87, actually), it currently is approximately 98 AU away from us, originally having been around 100.8 AU away. I may note that this is twice the distance from the Sun to Pluto (the tiniest dorf planet) at the largest (49 AU).

If either solution is accepted - and I would prefer both to be brought into action, blowing the thing up being Plan B - then we have ten years to make this work. Ten years of every major nation on the face of this planet contributing should be more than enough to get this done.
We'll spit the apocalypse into the face. And we'll walk away unharmed.

>>297748
We aren't trying to destroy it, we're trying to nudge it off-course. Destroying it would be both a FAR larger investment and also not worth doing.
We're playing pool, not Asteroids.

>>297751
Hence why I said
>Alternatively, and as preferred option

>>297748
You forget, mayhaps, that to accomplish your primary plan we will need two Hiem drives, one to get to the crew and auxiliary drive onto the Leviathan, and the other to actually move it off course. That is of course, assuming you don't intend to make the job a suicide mission for those involved (although it might have to be one if that's what it comes down to), or trying to ram the first Hiem drive into the meteor and hope it still works, which strikes me as probably not going to happen.

How expensive are these Hiem Drives to build and how long do they take, anyways?

There are two Heim drive options:
1) Objects accelerated by the Heim drive retain their velocity when the drive is off. This is a requirement for it to be used in an RKV. However, either conservation of energy is fundamentally broken, or the energy requirements needed to accelerate masses to relativistic velocities would be staggering.
MO: slam multiple impactors into Leviathan. May require absurd quantities of nuclear fuel to be lofted into orbit, either fission or fusion, to propel the RKVs. Mission can be pretty much unmanned outside of the staging orbit.
Dependencies: Heim drive ease of manufacture. Availability of portable fuel sources in orbit.

2) Objects accelerated by the Heim drive are 'free'*, with little to no change to their inertia imparted by the drive. The drive itself would likely require little energy to operate, and imparting 'inert' deltaV to a vessel could be done using tricks such as launching and activating the drive when the Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun (moving 'away' from Leviathan). Imparting velocity to Leviathan must be done with conventional means, which can be most easily accomplished with an installation on the surface of Leviathan.
MO: Land a (likely manned) mission on the surface of Leviathan using the Heimdrive, power a propulsion source with solar power. Propulsion source can be a Mass driver, VASIMR, Zenon Arc thruster, or a bespoke drive; e.g. if Leviathan is rich in hydrogen or water, a solar focus heater could be used to flash-vapourise soild fuel pellets, or solar-powered laser-confinement fusion could be performed if He3 is abundant on the surface, based on the Project Daudalus fusion pulse drive. Using a Heim drive as the propulsion source may be viable if the drives power scales linearly (or fractionally) with propelled mass, and that no precise change in trajectory is desired.
Dependencies: Capability to put sustained presence of surface of Leviathan including manufacturing capacity to create suitable drive, or payload capacity of arrival vehicle to bring suitable pre-built drive. More detailed remote (or small probe) survey of Leviathan's topology and composition required.

In either case, there's an additional consideration: impart enough deltaV for a safe miss margin, or impart the precise amount to bring Leviathan into earth orbit. The former is the 'safer' and probably more publicly palatable proposal, the latter provides Earth with vast in-orbit resources, and is the commercially preferable option, especially for kick-starting the world high-tech economy. The feasibility of inserting Leviathan into a capture orbit depends on it's current velocity (both it's speed, and it's current trajectory with respect to it's final intersection with Earth's orbit), and may require vastly more deltaV than the 'safe miss' proposal.

SUMMARY:
Two mission configurations to choose from dependant of further tests of the Heim drive's characteristics: 'long shot' or or 'tug boat'. Two objectives dependant on sway of public and corporate opinion: 'safe miss' or 'big payoff'.



*Bergenholms, fuck yeah! Gotta start work on Secondary beams. Incidentally, I propose that if a manned mission is chosen, the craft is named the Dauntless.

The current plan is to launch one or more Heim drives, each possessing a mass of roughly 1.5 tons, at the asteroid in an attempt to knock it off course, or destroy it altogether if need be.

Guys, pick one plan and stick with it. We propose a dozen competing plans, it makes us sound indecisive. This is very bad.

Mrs. Brandenburg approached the podium intentionally slow, as if to mull over the information in her mind and present it in a clear, calm manner that could easily be understood by the various diplomats of the international community.

>How expensive are these Heim Drives to build and how long do they take, anyways?

She knew that estimates from NASA suggested that simply building a single Heim drive with the suggested mass of 1.5 tons would be 2 trillion USD. She also knew that, if all capable scientists and engineers in the United States were involved in building a Heim drive with the mass of 1.5 tons) it would take 4,380 continuous days of work, or roughly 12 years.

Damn, that pretty much precludes a manned mission (anything on Leviathan would have to be self sufficient, and to fit long-term life-support for even one person within 1.5 tons of payload would be an enormous challenge).
Focus will have to be on landing an automated manufacturing module capable of refining local materials and bootstrapping itself to construction of the drive system. Squeezing anything useful into a mere 1.5 tons of payload is going to be a real challenge.

Is the figure of 105,120 hours for several tens of thousands of people working together (what, are they building the drive out of gold filigree using only their feet or something) or a project total of 105,120 man-hours per drive?
Does the time to construct the drive vary linearly with the payload capacity, i.e. is it faster to build, say, 3 x 500kg capacity drives than one 1500kg capacity drive? Or is the build time of the drive nearly independent of it's payload capacity (making a 1500 ton drive take barely longer to construct than a 1.5 ton)?

>>297815
No point picking an option before even knowing if it's possible, let alone feasible.

>>297926
Wait, you know we intended to have as much of that payload as possible be lead, right? These wouldn't be 1.5t drives, it would be like a 50kg drive with 1450kg of dead weight.

The cost of the drive must not change much with size, since a breeding population would require a ship with a mass of well over 1Mt in order to survive the journey anywhere.
We're probably going to have to go with a single 15t drive.

Also, it's more efficient to mass-produce small drives via assembly line, as then you can train lots of people to perform lots of simple tasks and have professionals check their work.

Also, where the fuck did these scientists get the funds to MAKE and TEST one of these? R&D is orders of magnitude more expensive than production!

>>297941
>>297960
The complexity, man-hours and price is relative to the size of the Heim Drive. The price and projects total man-hours listed previously tie into the size. The larger the drive gets, the more complex it gets to overcome the burden of additional weight.

The prototype drive managed to be both cheaper and smaller the current drive proposed by the US Congress Though, the term cheap in this instance is still billions of dollars (paid for by a select number of billionaires and millionaires personal income, whom felt their cash to be worthless in the onslaught of slow creep of Leviathan.)

>>298549
>current drive

This is incorrect. Our goal is to hit the thing with enough energy to deflect its course. The number of drives and payload for each depends entirely on how quickly we can construct and deploy a solution.
If the fastest solution is to build a billion one-gram drives, then we will build a billion one-gram drives.

We're tasking you with finding the optimal number of drives at whatever mass it would take to achieve a total of at least 1.5 metric tons of mass impacting with Leviathan.

Oh, important question: What's the formula for determining the total payload a drive can handle as a function of its mass?

For example, in order for any sort of escape to be viable that 1.5t heim drive would need to have a usable carrying capacity of several million tons.