[ClearCase_guy]

Because 433 Eros is rotating, the best way to return such balls to Earth would be to attach a signalling device to them, then reel them away from Eros on a long cable, using the centrifugal force to accelerate it to a good speed, then releasing it from the cable in the direction of Earth, where it would be recovered when it intersected the orbital path and returned to the surface.

Shades of Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Is there anyway we can aim one of these large balls at Iran, and just sort of "miss it" when it intersects the recovery area of our orbital path?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Hell of a waste of platinum. For them, I’d send a big ball o’ slag.

But practically speaking, you can only roughly guess at where and when objects on a trajectory path with punch through the atmosphere. This is why they are always a little nervous when a large satellite reenters.

On a more practical note, if we still had a space shuttle, we could send it up with a cargo bay full of high tech ceramic bowling balls that would pretty much obliterate anything over a several square mile area.

A similar project, named “the rods of God”, was considered for a while, with the giant rods actually propelled by a rail gun aboard the satellite, and able to penetrate very deeply beneath the ground.