NASA Making Plans To Save the Earth

aluminumangel writes, "Taking a page out of a Michael Bay movie, NASA is considering a manned mission to land on an asteroid, 'poke one with a stick,' and see how feasible it would be to deflect it from its course. Obviously, the application would be valuable in a doomsday situation and hopefully could keep us from going wherever the dinosaurs went." The article makes oblique reference to another goal such a mission could serve: giving us something to do in space, something to engage the paying public, between the time we return to the Moon and the time we get to Mars.

Cue stupid Aerosmith song

[Anonymous Coward]

If this means finally launching Ben Affleck into space, I'm all for it.

They need to hurry

[DAldredge]

They really need to hurry, Bruce Willis isn't getting any younger!

Re:Trust Man

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory:

Man created beer.
God created pot.

Re:Don't comets obey the laws of physics???

[rolfwind]

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.

In practice, however......

thank god!

[TheWart]

phew, I feel safer knowing that Michael Bay's movies are the blueprint for saving the world. At least I can rest easy tonight.

Re:Why send people?

[Hooya]

except, without people, you wouldn't get to have tearjerker bravery/sacrifice with "don't want to miss a thing" playing in the background.

Re:Armageddon wouldn't even be close.

[dangitman]

What if you used a really big ball of garbage?

Dinosaurs

[GodInHell]

Technically, the dinosaurs didn't go anywhere. They just shrunk and grew feathers.. we know grow them in factory farms and eat them by the pound at Chik-Fil-A.

(That and worship our them as our yellow masters through PBS.)

-GiH

Think of the Astrologists!!!!

[themindfantastic]

Hey you will go screwing up all those astrologists and their predictions if you start moving crap around! Think of the ASTROLOGISTS!!!!!

Re:Obligatory?

[Anonymous Coward]

American components. Russian components. All made in Taiwan!

Re:Think of the Astrologists!!!!

[kfg]

Think of the ASTROLOGISTS!!!!!

I am thinking of them. I'm thinking of poking them with a stick until they deflect from their course. I really like the idea of lots of little pokes, but if that doesn't do the trick I'm perfectly willing to blow 'em up, real good.

anti-overlord revolution

[davidwr]

I for one welcome the uprising against the new asteroid overlords.

Re:Weaponized!

[Skidge]

Take out a major city, no radiation. Just the threat would be a useful tool of terror and control.

Shhh. Don't say things like that, or they won't let us take our asteroids on airplanes anymore.

Re:Am I the only one that doesn't care

[ComputerSherpa]

Dude. First, take a deep breath. Then, go here [kittenbreak.com] and hit Refresh over and over until the bad feeling goes away. After that, take a walk in the woods, or go to church, or help out at a day-care or something. Life has meaning if you go look for it. :-)

Re:Armageddon wouldn't even be close.

[dangitman]

See this beowulf cluster? Garbage. See this slashdot post? Garbage.

Re:Weaponized!

[Who235]

he point is that any nation that has the ability to move an asteroid (read that as the US, the US, and the US) already has the ability to wipe out cities at will. At the stupidly insane cost of moving an asteroid, you might as well just build a few thousand cruise missiles and level the city that way.

You're missing the point.

Cruise missiles, unlike asteroids, have no super-villain street cred. Hurling giant space rocks at people displays a lot more panache.

That's like saying anyone who can build a weather machine to grief his enemies probably already has guns he could shoot him with.