One scientist is proposing that the best way to deal with asteroids that potentially threaten life on Earth is to intercept them with a nuclear warhead. Bong Wie, director of the Asteroid Deflection Research Center at Iowa State University, described the plan that he and his team revealed at the May 23 International Space Development Conference. The plan would cost an estimated $1 billion and build on work already in development at NASA, according to Space.com.
The team designed a two-section spacecraft that would go out to intercept the asteroid. One part of the spacecraft would be a kinetic energy impactor that would impact the asteroid first and then blast a crater into the space rock. Then the other part of the craft, carrying the warhead, would hit the creator and cause a devastating nuclear explosion that would fragment the asteroid and cause the remaining pieces of the asteroid to fly off in other trajectories, hopefully sparing the earth from terrible destruction. It is estimated that 99 percent of the asteroid debris would miss the Earth. The remaining bits of asteroid that could hit Earth would be burned up in the atmosphere and pose little to no threat to people on Earth.
Wie's plan would be for asteroid threats that appear on short notice, roughly a year before hitting Earth. Other ideas to deflect asteroids would require many years or decades of notice before they could be effective. Wie's work has received several grants from NASA, as part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC). Wie received a $100,000 grant for 2011-2012, and another $500,000 dollar grant for 2012-14. After this phase, Wie will have to convince NASA or another space agency for continued funding for the project, as the NIAC does not have more grants past phase 2.