I wouldn't bet on an iPod, or any other electronic device, working
after an EMP in the vicinity.
A solar flare, however, is a different kettle of fish. A historical
case: in 1859, an unusually intense solar flare (the Carrington
Event) induced high voltage in telegraph wires, disrupting the
entire system, world-wide: sparks flew out of telegraph terminals and
paper next to the terminals caught on fire. A lesser solar flare
burned out transformers all over Quebec in 1989. A Carrington Event
today would burn out EVERY transformer in the country, bringing the
electrical grid to a screeching halt. The grid would not work again
until the transformers were replaced, which would take months.
Solar flares can also damage or destroy satellites--including GPS and
communications satellites.
There's one satellite--the Advanced Composition Explorer--that would
give us 15 minutes of warning to another Carrington Event, but it's
11 years old and past its planned life span. (Of course, we would
need some kind of emergency plan to shut off all transformers to save
them; but if we didn't have the satellite to give 15 minutes of
warning, no emergency plan would be possible.)
I hate to sound like a broken record, but WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSONS
and tell them that you want the space program to get funded. Without
political support, the space program--or the good parts of it,
anyway--will go away.
You can also join the Planetary Society or similar associations, and
be part of a group that keeps the pressure on.
--Constance
On Sep 11, 2009, at 12:17 PM, b_s-wilk wrote:
Actually, there are quite a few reasons to be in space. In
addition to GPS, weather satellites, and warnings of solar flares
[which, if large enough, can fry your iPod, your computer, and the
entire electrical grid], the space program can warn about
continent-killing asteroids. And, if we do enough research NOW,
we can deflect the asteroid before it wipes out the entire eastern
U.S. (or some other unlucky region) and plunges the world into
something resembling nuclear winter.
It doesn't take people being launched into space to protect us from
asteroids. We can develop the technology to do it with robotics and
rockets.
Or we can launch someone to ride the asteroid, like the bomb in Dr.
Strangelove. I can think of several people who would love to do that.
Can an EMP fry my iPod?
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