Two NASA astronauts have a better approach than detonating nuclear devices to save the Earth from an asteroid collision: Tow the asteroid from its path.
Astronauts Edward Lu and Stanley Love say a spacecraft could use a gravity towline to alter the course of an Earth-bound asteroid, National Geographic News reported,.
Previous schemes to deflect an incoming space rock range from landing a spacecraft on the asteroid and pushing it off course to blowing it up with nuclear devices.
The alternative plan would have a spacecraft hover above the asteroid and gradually pull it off course using nothing more than the gravitational attraction between the two bodies.
If an asteroid is found to be at an impact trajectory with Earth … you will have many decades of notice. And it turns out that you only need to change its velocity by a very small amount in order to prevent a collision, said Lu, a NASA astronaut at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.