[ExI] (NASA.gov) NASA to chronicle close Earth flyby of asteroid (fwd)

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Tomasz Rola...

>... Ok, but if we set up perimeter at Moon's orbit, this gives about 4-5h
alert time before impact. Should be enough to prepare some a-a
rocket...Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--

OK, assume it into existence.  For the sake of thought experiments, assume
any advance warning you wish, and any existing or feasible future rocket you
want.  Now what?  If you had in mind putting a nuke aboard and trying to
blast the rock into gravel, keep in mind the relative velocity.  We have no
current technology that would detonate a nuke with a tight enough precision
to do much to a meteoroid.  For instance, if we manage to get the trigger
tech to plus or minus one millisecond, that is plus or minus a couple of
kilometers.  If the nuke is more than a few meters away at detonation, the
rock would scarcely notice, and even if we manage a perfect detonation, it
isn't clear to me it would break up the meteoroid.

spike