6equ35

[Chauncey]

Simply slow the asteroid down so that it arrives too late to hit Earth or speed it up so that it arrives too early at that point in the Earth's orbit before Earth has arrived there. Put rockets on its front firing it backwards or put rockets on its rear firing forwards.

I've a feeling that it's not going to be as easy as you say 6EQ,did you think of this late one night in the pub written on the back of a fag packet? 🤔

Apart from attaching the rockets just how big would they have to be to work,who's going up to do the job and what rates of pay are they on? How long would it take to build the rockets and would the Russians want a piece of the action?

[6EQUJ5]

Well the Yanks at NASA did it last year using an unmanned craft which attached rockets to an asteroid and changed its course. The further out there that it is the lesser the deflection would need to be. If it was estimated to be 5 years away then an unmanned craft would be able to attach the rockets and it would need only the most subtle of deflections to change its course to make it miss Earth. The technology exists now and has worked on an asteroid that would not have hit Earth. It was a test of the technology.

We would hope that in the event of a really serious case the Yanks, Russians, the European Space Agency, the Indians and the Chinese would co-operate. They all have space craft, indeed it is by no means certain what nationality will be the first person to set foot on Mars.

Yes the Yanks changed the direction of an asteroid last year though they did not try to either slow it down or speed it up. But surely that is just a variation on a theme.