radio667
05-25-2004, 07:44 AM
from CNN.com by way of FiringSquad -- At the movies, the best way to stop an asteroid from wiping out Earth is to lob a few nuclear missiles at the rocky beast or blow it apart from the inside with megaton bombs.
While those methods promise some fantastic explosions -- and maybe a blockbuster hit -- a team of engineers is looking at a more patient approach. Their weapon: a swarm of nuclear-powered robots that could drill into an asteroid and hurl chunks of it into space with enough force to gradually push it into a non-Earth impacting course.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/19/asteroid.eater/index.html
While those methods promise some fantastic explosions -- and maybe a blockbuster hit -- a team of engineers is looking at a more patient approach. Their weapon: a swarm of nuclear-powered robots that could drill into an asteroid and hurl chunks of it into space with enough force to gradually push it into a non-Earth impacting course.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/19/asteroid.eater/index.html