[Prime Choice]

The trick is figuring out exactly when the asteroid will be in the exact place where such a modest bump would be effective.

I wonder if the author of this piece ever heard of Deep Impact? You know...the rendezvous and intentional collision with a moving comet on July 4th, 2005?

It's not a "trick." It's called rocket science.

[GeronL]

apparently the NY Times think that asteroids go around changing course for no reason whatsoever, or like wolves on the hunt. what is it with these people??

[Better Dead Than Red]

Speaking of which, is it because we have a Republican president or has NASA been able to filter out anti-American fools from its ranks? The deep impact mission and the first Mars rover landing both took place on the 4th of July.

[snowsislander]

I wonder if the author of this piece ever heard of Deep Impact? You know...the rendezvous and intentional collision with a moving comet on July 4th, 2005?

I don't know if they have heard of Deep Impact, but they certainly don't seem to have heard of Hayabusa, which will attempt to land on the asteroid Itokawa here in a month or so, and then attempt to return to earth with its samples:

Today's HAYABUSA
Last update 2005/08/04

Distance from Earth :

349,663,157km

Distance from Itokawa :

53,998km

	<Reference of distance>
	from the Sun to the Earth :	149,600,000km
	from the Earth to the Moon :	384,400km

*	Hayabusa just came out of the conjunction area at end of July and restarted ordinary operation. On middle of September, Hayabusa will reach to the asteroid Itokawa.

Link for above

More information about Hayabusa from ISAS/JAXA.

[King Prout]

that's not what they meant.
it is a function of orbital mechanics.
they need to determine the window of the rock's orbit in which a small amount of delta-V would over time become magnified enough to nudge it's path away from near-Earth flyby.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It's not a "trick." It's called rocket science.

The author is probably a liberal arts grad, so it's all supernatural to him. ;)