What I believe we need to do to deal with Asteroid 2004 MN.

[benburch]

We need to do a few things. In order;

1. Put a beacon on it so we can track it to a millimeter.

2. Use that information to learn for certain if it will hit.

3. If it will not hit, fine.

4. If it will hit, we need to build a nuclear powered ion rocket motor, land it on the rock, and gently push it into an orbit that will miss us. If we get the motor on the rock early, the amount of change we need to make in its velocity to cause a miss is MUCH smaller than if we start pushing much later.

We have 25 years.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Or else we can call Bruce Willis.

Failing that, we can do what they proposed during the good ol' Duck 'n' Cover days of the Cold War: Put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

[benburch]

2. If I thought brute force could do this...

I'd see it as an opportunity to get global nuclear disarmament... Fire all the damned things at it and blow it to smithereens. But, sadly, there is significant doubt that nuclear bombs would have much effect on an asteroid, and also the real possibility that they could make matters worse.

[The Zanti Regent]

3. What about the PRESIDENTIAL PRAYER TEAM™???????????

I'm sure THEY can PRAY it away!

[Deja Q]

4. Or, in other words, they'll

NAG it to DEATH!

:wow:

[rasputin1952]

5. I have been following this asteroid story for a couple of days....

and if it hits....let's just say, this planet will be in for a very 'interesting' time. The thought of it hitting anywhere is spooky, but to be on a coast if it hits water...:scared:. What do you do to get away from a 1500 meter wall of water?

I don't know if we have the expertise to get a monitor on the thing at this point, and if it rolls or tumbles, the readings would be out of whack anyway. f course, if the Brainiac Squad gets to work on this, they should be able to deal with it easily. But once you know it is going to hit, (if that scenario is the real one), what to do next? First thing I'd do is soil my pants...:(

Really though...if we were not up to speed to get this rock moved just a bit...and it were going to hit...I suppose worrying about it won't do much good...:shrug:

To save humanity though, I think they should be working on solutions to this and future problems like this.

[benburch]

6. Well, we did an asteroid soft-landing already, so....

I assume that a simple beacon would be not a problem. In fact, that vehicle was never designed to make a soft landing, but they decided to try that with the last of the fuel, and it worked to the degree that they got video almost to the surface, and the spacecraft was still able to communicate after touching down.

And it is easy to compute the doppler for rotation, and factor it out of one's calculations.

This part of the action plan is fairly cheap. And most likely we will learn that there is no danger, but we HAVE to confirm that.