[SunkenCiv]

That’ll teach that rock to mess with Earth. ;^)

It’s a good proof of concept demonstration. My view is, redirecting the trajectory of something we can move, that is already up there, and preferably moving in retrograde around the Sun, would be good to have all set up, and would deliver more energy to the larger interlopers on course for us. With a large hazard, it’s better to turn the whole thing into space gravel.

[butlerweave]

That’ll teach that rock to mess with Earth

or the other way around , now it can cover more area

[CurlyDave]

The real problem is finding them early enough to really do anything about them.

My proposal is to fund a group of special purpose telescopes that look for dangerous asteroids. The naming convention, where the discoverer of an asteroid gets to name it gives us an opportunity for funding.

If someone like Coors, were to fund a telescope, the discovery of “Coors 2025” would both advance science and provide advertising...

[SauronOfMordor]

Busting it up so that it burns up high in the atmosphere, rather than causing damage on the ground, is almost as good as deflecting it.

One important bit of data is how “solid” these asteroids are, in the sense of how much impact it takes to bust them up.