I have an idea on how to stop an asteroid from hitting earth. How do I send my idea to NASA or the NEO projec

Question

My idea consists of whacking the asteroid on opposite sides of its greatest moment of inertia with delta functions at the optimal time (say with mini-nukes) in order to make the asteroid wobble at extremely high angular velocity according to Euler's equations of motion (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler's_equations)

Then with a primary nuclear weapon or other large explosive in the center of the asteroid detonated at the proper time would break the asteroid into chunks that would fly away from each other at a high enough velocity to overcome the asteroids own escape velocity due to the high degree of angular rotation of the asteroid before the main explosion. (Meaning that the asteroid will not re-assemble under its own gravity).

Answer 1

if theres a large asteroid headed for earth, it would be unrealistic to try to blow it up. the reason becomes pretty obvious if you think a little harder, at just how big asteroids can be. and how much energy it would take to destroy such a large mass. plus how do you propose getting the "primary nuke" to the center of the asteroid?



it is more realistic to deflect its trajectory enough to just pass by earth. and of course, the farther out the asteroid is, the smaller of an angle you have to change in the asteroids trajectory to avoid disaster.



so really, the key is early detection. if you see a large asteroid just passing say, saturn, then you have many years to work something out.

Answer 2

There are 2 theories that i understand approximately. a million) place a rather reflective mesh or wrap around one end of an asteroid. the greater gentle from the solar will replace the asteroids spin shifting it right into a clean orbit and far flung from the earth. 2) deliver a probe to orbit the asteroid in a rather eccentric orbit. The rather eccentric orbit will knock the asteroid astray through gravitational wobble. BTW, sending nuclear gadget to blow and asteroid is an extremely undesirable concept. Why? by way of fact asteroids are super and can greater effective than in all probability stay unaffected by ability of the blast and undeterred from their direction. in spite of the shown fact that, whether we've been waiting to blow one up. The now radioactive fragments of the asteroid might nonetheless be headed in direction of earth. So we would nonetheless get hit yet with the added earnings of having added greater lethality to the asteroid by ability of making it radioactive. this could be like attempting to stop a hurricane with a nuclear gadget. The hurricane does no longer stop yet now (DOH!) it could be radioactive. which could be a actual Homer Simpson 2d for Mankind! ;)

Answer 3

Have you ever seen what a 'shotgun' does to a dirt clod? The trajectory would remain the same for the fragments that leave the whole at right angles to the rotation with a multiplied velocity times the radius of rotation. You would likely make it more devastating, just spread over a wider area. (by the time we could get a missile to hit it, which has only been done once, actually a satellite)