Armageddon and Deep Impact for real

Very fitting name for the mission. Don Quijote.

Will be interested in seeing how this turns out - I'll have to keep my eyes open come 2015.

 

I've heard about ideas like this before - redirecting an asteroid that is. However, I was unaware that anyone was planning on testing this. As for how practical such a scenario is, it would seem like that would depend on what exactly we're talking about (assuming the test works in the first place).

First and foremost, it would seem like the size of the asteroid would be important. With the asteroid they're talking about here, it's about 1/3 of a mile long, and that can definitely do a ton of damage. I'm no expert on this, but my understanding is that an asteroid when it hits the earth leaves a crater several orders of magnitude larger than it's actual size. That big ass crater in Flagstaff, Arizona, was caused by an asteroid about the size of a house. Still, a 1/3 of a mile long asteroid is small potatoes compared to asteroids we know exist that are several times that size. It seems that the laws of physics would dictate that the bigger the asteroid, the harder it would be to move it.

Secondly, you'd need a lot of lead time to pull this off. Something like this takes several months, if not a couple of years to prepare, so we'd have to know something is coming long before it were to actually strike. (Also, it would make sense that the earlier you would intercept such an asteroid, the less you'd have to move it to make it miss the Earth.)

 

Why are they experimenting with an asteroid that has a chance of hitting the earth? what if their experiment drasticlally fails ant places the rock on a course for the earth?

 

I assume they're going to try to move it in a direction that would lessen it's chance of hitting the earth, but increase it. But wouldn't that statement also apply to an asteroid that presently has NO chance of hitting the earth? If you change it's trajectory, you can turn an asteroid that once had no chance of hitting us into something that would have a chance of hitting us. It would be an epic fail to be sure, but it theoretically could happen.

 

I think I remember reading somewhere that any asteroid larger than about 1000 feet in diameter is a world destroyer (in the civilization sense). Another important factor is the angle at which it strikes the unsuspecting planet. Most scientist recommend the continuous use of protective headgear--which can readily be fashioned by good ol' tin foil, easily enough.