Sounds like a pretty crap idea to me. Obviously these robots can be manoeuvred around in space? So why not just get them to push the asteroid onto a different trajectory? It'd be a helluva lot quicker way of going about it than throwing rocks off it.

Perhaps that would require too much power? I suppose there is less power involved to throw rocks off an asteroid for 10 years than to blast it in the opposite direction in an instant...

Edit: Or maybe we're just being TOLD thats what its for. Maybe some kind of rare ore or magic fairy dust has been discovered in these asteroids and they are making these robot spacecraft to drill it out of them in secret, all the while telling us they are trying to stop the asteroid. Throwing bits of rock off in space I ask you. There isn't any friction in space so how is that going to work?...its a conspiracy!

Edited by - Griffon_26 on 5/19/2004 9:43:21 PM

usually there is alot of gas sorrounding asteroids.

the problem with all this stuff is launching something with radioactive material inside it - if it explodes on take-off, it's like a ICBM, and spreads areas in radioactive dust

but it's a good idea and avoids, as the article says, cruddy hollywood films with bruce willis in them

<off-topic>bruce willis is a horrible actor IMHO</off-topic>
now back to topic! *glares at every1*

wolfy you twonk, you where the only one off topic

mustie it sound like a crap idea to me too. they'd be digging for one helluva long time. IMHO just nuking the crap outta those space rocks are the best way to go. just make sure the nukes hit in the right places...

or.. we could stick drill bits onto the nuke heads.. when they hit.. they start digging.. they go like 10ft in, then they blow..

on the lines of Mustangs statement, you could "nudge" the asteroid into a different flight path with only a little fuel expended if it is done in the direction of its tredectory and there by send it where you want and prsuming it is large enough to prove a danger to earth, it can then avoid hitting us.

ok final.. you're in one of those standard space shuttles, going at over 50km/s. what do you need to change your path? you're in space. you use booster rockets right ? those on the sides.. how much do you need? you're headed for the centre of the earth. you need to divert by about 6 degrees. the booster lets out say a tenth of the total shuttle mass in energy joules. (eg shuttle = 1000'000g, booster gives 10000J)

given the size of a world threatening rock hurling towards the planet at the same 50km/s, with all that ice clouds and all.. going over 5 billion tonnes.. just imagine how much fuel you'd need to diver the thing 6 degrees any direction. you also got the problem of embedding a thruster big enough, capable of delivering the required amount before doom.

in other words, its like lifting a rocket off the planet.. your fuel makes up more than 3 quarters of your total weight.

Yeah but you wouldn't being trying to "nudge" the thing aside. That's rather pointless as you've pointed out. Instead, you want to mess with the overall tragectory. You want either to accelerate (more likely) or decelerate the object so that it's moment of intersection with Earth's orbit is either sooner than when Earth is due to be situated there or after.

It's difficult to tell the structure of the asteroid too.
If it's made up of several clumps of rock and dust, nuking it won't change it much as it will absorb most of the kinetic energy.

rec, the point of nuking it is to either, blow it up into space dust, or to take enough huge bites out of it so that it won't become an extinction level event.

Presumeing that any undertaking is done, it in all probability will work our of a space station. Keep fuel, what ever the type there, usina a large"Tanker" to transport it out to where you would need it as I am presuming any astgeroid over a certain size would be the only ones worth the trouble. I not talkin about one the size of the one in Deep Impact, but one the size of a football field. That size could have a Booster attached it small fuel tank to do a full burn and give it some momentum as with weightless ness, there would be a great deal less resistence. All of it though is thritical until tested, including nukeing it, as resistence is missing the atmiospher (sp) weight on the explanging explosion. Ahh who knows, I do believe on large ones going to hit us one day in the not to distant future.

@Finalday: hope it doesn't happen while I'm alive!
Anyway, I think just a small push would work algright, but it must be done at a decent distance, since when the ateroid is close, it's tough to do anything. So, deep space robot guardians should be a good idea
Funny enough, nobody cared about this for millenia, and nothing happened. What if too much speculation on this subject calls the disaster to happen?

An idea came to my head and is now desperately searching for brain