An article that includes a review of recent mitigation options including ESA concepts, asteroid tractor, and projectile concept from Massonnet/Meyssignac in France.
"Now, Didier Massonnet and Benoît Meyssignac of France's National Centre for Space Studies have come up with a new projectile to fire at the asteroid in such a "kill". They advocate capturing a small, 40-metre asteroid and "parking" it a stable Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, where the gravity of the Earth and the Sun balance."
"If a larger asteroid were then found to be on a collision course with Earth, the small rock could be moved into its path within eight months, says the team. This "David's stone" would be too puny to cause any damage to Earth if things went awry, says the team. "Such an asteroid capture would be one of the most remarkable achievements of mankind," they write in Acta Astronautica."
"But other experts say the plan is not realistic. It relies on using a small hopping robot to excavate rock at tens of metres per second from the little asteroid in order to provide the force to capture it and send it towards the larger rock. The capture would take a year of digging and would require the robot to remove 66% of the small rock's mass."
"Taking out a killer asteroid – with a tame one"
Maggie McKee
26 April 2006
NewScientist.com
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