Fact following fiction? Scientists plan mission to blow up an asteroid 'hurtling towards Earth'

DailyMail.co.uk ^ | 8/17/11 | Ted Thornhill

[Tanniker Smith]

One potential target is a 1600ft-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis, Have they taken the naquadah core into account?

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Apophis didn't try to destroy the Earth with an asteroid.
Anubis did.

[Mr. Lucky]

Back when hard sciences were still taught in school, wouldn’t a college freshman with a slide rule have been able to calculate exactly how much a rocket of a known mass and velocity would deflect an asteroid of a known mass and velocity?

[LevinFan]

I don’t have the math on me right now, but the kinetic energy of a satellite going 6 miles per second is enormous. It would be like using a nuclear weapon.

[LevinFan]

Celestial bodies are often given names out of ancient mythology.
Though we could name it Dotty, after my wife. She’s a life sucking blotchy from which there is no escape.
NASA official says “that’s sweet, Carl.”

[ArrogantBustard]

My prediction is that a fly body checking me has a greater chance of changing my direction than this asteroid.

m₁v₁+m₂v₂ = (m₁ + m₂)V

Every single time (adjust for relativity as needed).

Particularly in space, the resulting orbital change doesn't have to be large to be detected.

[ArrogantBustard]

My prediction is that a fly body checking me has a greater chance of changing my direction than this asteroid.

m₁v₁+m₂v₂ = (m₁ + m₂)V

Every single time (adjust for relativity as needed).

Particularly in space, the resulting orbital change doesn't have to be large to be detected.

[Oztrich Boy]

As I said on the other thrtead. “Are we really sure that Newton’s Laws of Motion apply IN SPACE!”

[anymouse]

A far better solution would be to land electro-magnetic mass drivers, robotic excavators and a small nuclear power plant (to power the former items) on the asteroid to not only change the asteroids trajectory, but send the valuable excavated material to a catcher/refiner facility orbiting in one of the Earth-Moon Lagrange points. The asteroid could eventually be steered and slowed into that same Earth-Moon Lagrange point to then be directly mined and hollowed out to make a large habitable artificial moon. Keep doing this until you have a fleet of manned spacecraft capable of traveling out to larger asteroids to continue the process of mining and building.