[jpl]

A missile defense system could perhaps one day down the line double as an asteroid/comet defense system. Dual-use technology helping to kill two birds with one stone.

[BenLurkin]

bump

[Tallguy]

A missile defense system could perhaps one day down the line double as an asteroid/comet defense system. Dual-use technology helping to kill two birds with one stone.

The technology that we are developing is Hit-to-Kill. Given the mass & velocity ratios of a (dense) ferrite meteor and the kill vehicle on one hand, and the close proximity of intercept, I rather doubt that we could change the trajectory all that much. And given that the result would be more uncertain than the projected impact zone, I don't know that it would even be worth attempting.

Now if we could put a nuke warhead on the Kill Vehicle we might have a shot pulverizing the meteor or at least we could seriously deflect it.