Chuck Hards wrote:
(What was that remarkable little spacecraft that soft- landed on an asteroid recently?) We certainly don't need to hit it at closest approach. Let's pop that baby when it's WAY out there, to let the fragments disperse more widely if it's not completely vaporized.
I don't know. Blowing it up could open a huge can of legal worms. Right after NEAR landed on Eros, NASA received a bill for a parking fee from some guy who claims to own Eros ( http://www.orbdev.com/010216.html ). And then after Deep Impact made a crater on Temple 1 NASA was sued by some woman who claimed making a hole in the comet had messed up her horoscope ( http://www.nightly.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/10/36580.html ). Can you imagine the trouble NASA would be in if rather than just sitting on or burrowing into the asteroid, they actually obliterated it? I mean, just think what it might do to our horoscopes? :-) Patrick