Patwoman VS The Kobayashi Maru

Did you see this story? It's all over CNN and NASA and MSNBC, etc. An asteroid might hit Mars? Wow. That's a little scary.

Yeah, I know there's no danger to the Earth. Not even to the NASA-directed Rover that is collecting data on Mars. It's just... I mean, it's in our backyard, cosmically speaking.

So T and I, being the über nerds that we are, had a very lively discussion about this "harmless" asteroid:


What if, say tomorrow, we got some sort of transmission from Mars, saying something along the lines of "Help us. This asteroid will destroy what is left of our dying civilization."? What would we do? Would we help? How?

T believes the only way we could help would be to offer aid in the way of food or supplies, provided they told us what kind of food or supplies they needed. He says, we could maybe launch everything we have, loaded with supplies, within the (approximately) one month time frame between now and the impact.

He also says there may be a chance to divert the asteroid, using grazier technology. (Gravity lasers, basically.)

But, since I am a cynic, I have to ask... Even if we have the technology to help, would we? I want to say that we, as humans, would help in any way we could. However, I've met a lot of humans. I'd say it depends.

Who would we help? Basically, humanoid or humanlike aliens.
Friendly aliens.

Cute, fun aliens.

My favorite alien.


But...

or
I'm guessing we'll be sending up an archaelogical expedition after the impact.

As far as knitting goes, I cast on, knitted, and finished a green and black scarf to match the lace hat I did earlier this week. I like matching things.