[Magnum44]

Somebody on this thread, Please educate me. I work in space but asteroids encounters aren't my area of expertise.

A quick search for '2002 NT7' brings up the long term asteroid encounter site which does list a 2019 encounter by '2002 NT7' but at .17 AU's distance, hardly a threat. See web page:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/CloseAppLong.html

Another look at the 'Potentially hazardous asteroids' site at:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html

doesn't even list NT7, though there are obviously hundreds of others with more imminent encounter dates that we never hear about. No indication of the size (mass) of the listed objects is given, though it may be there and I can't read the product correctly.

So where is all the hubbub about NT7 coming from?

[Magnum44]

Further searching yields that NT7 is ~45 degrees inclined orbit. Not sure whether that is equatorial or ecliptic, but in either case, that means the intercept problem just from an energy point of view becomes very difficult. I won't spend time on the math here, but I can confidently say that to intercept with the intent to rendezvous (match energy states) would probably require a multi year, planetary flyby with gravity assists to get an intercept orbit with a reasonable chance of remaining propellant to capture verses just fly past it. And if you cant rendezvous, you can't appropriately place charges to ensure your blast will give you the desired orbit correction.

Just pointing out that the method of creating the force for deflection is probably the easiest of the issues to deal with here.

[Prodigal Son]

I work in space but asteroids encounters aren't my area of expertise.

I don't have an answer just a question for you.

Whereabouts in space do you work and are they hiring? And do you commute everyday or just with the Space Shuttle or what? :-)

no need to answer if you don't want to