Whoever gets the technology to deflect an asteroid will rule the world.
You can deflect them away...or toward, if you are not good, you nasty little powerless people!
Are you crazy?!
One average near-earth asteroid contains enough platinum group metal ore equal in wealth to the entire world’s annual product. That, my friend, is a hell of a lot of moolah.
In France, farmers took to eating snails as a way to control pests in their vegetable gardens. That is a good idea to emulate. We should treat asteroids the same way French farmers treat snails - consume them!
Besides, there is a lot of money to be made out in space. To Hell with space tourism.
Yer not just a-kiddin’.
A 100-yard diameter rock could be parked at, say, L5, and held in reserve. While it would not be a quick launch, giving it a push using a really large plasma drive (not yet demoed) at just the right time and in the correct direction would deliver it basically without warning to a target area.
Wouldn’t have to be basketball-hoop accurate.
Boom! Major city erased.
And it would look like a natural event.