5 ways science could divert deadly asteroids

3. Turn the asteroid into a cosmic sailboat

The sun emits light in the form of photons – these are particles that travel like waves through something called the electromagnetic field. This is how the sun produces solar energy that can power your house. Electromagnetic waves travel through the air a bit like regular waves. Or, indeed, like wind.

It’s long been theorised that in the vast expanse of space, it would be possible for ships to ride these waves like a boat, with special sails attached that would direct and manipulate electromagnetic energy.
If you had advanced warning of an asteroid’s approach – and I’m talking several years – you could theoretically fasten some solar sails to an asteroid, do a little tracking and steer it away from earth.

4. Pull the asteroid out of orbit

As we all know, every object in the universe emits a gravitational pull that fluctuates based on the size of the object. Even right now you are are exerting a pull on the objects around you, but unfortunately your mass isn’t enough to actually move them. Feel free to give it a go and prove us wrong though.

Compared to an asteroid, very few man-made objects could be considered ‘massive’. However, if you placed even a small spacecraft in an asteroid’s orbit, over the course of a few years it’s likely that it would exert enough pull to, you guessed it, divert the asteroid’s course. Again, this plan would need to be in action well in advance of impact.

5. Hurl little bits of the asteroid into space

Remember those tennis-ball pitching machines the teacher used in PE as a kid? They had a feeder tube and a wheel assembly to shoot balls out at 80 km/hr to teach you a lesson about physics and why you should listen to your teachers when they say not to walk in front of the ouchy thing.

Astronomers believe that if you could create a big enough version of this, and somehow managed to transport it to the surface of an asteroid, you could potentially scoop up large sections of the asteroid and shoot them out in the opposite direction you want the asteroid to go. Due to Newton’s third law (each action has an equal and opposite reaction) this displacement of mass, and the force of the machine on the asteroid, would then shift the asteroid away from earth’s orbit.

Now the only question that remains is, should we send miners or astronauts to conduct this mission?

Whilst all these methods have at least one (though, sometimes literally only one) scientist championing them as the most logical solution, diverting the asteroid is merely the tip of the iceberg. In order to orchestrate a feat as monumental as preventing the end of the world you’d need both widespread international cooperation, and a lot of money.

That’s why deciding on a method of diversion for the asteroid is only step three of five within NASA’s plan. Other prevention steps include increasing global observation and tracking efforts of interplanetary bodies, improving prediction data, growing international awareness and cooperation regarding the threat of space debris, and congressionally agreeing to a ‘plan of action’ if a body does manage to strike earth.

So, you can rest assured that there are people out there thinking about the best ways to defend you from Armageddon. There’s even a NASA department of ‘planetary defence’. But make no mistake, a functional and cost-effective plan is a long way off.

So let’s cross our fingers that one isn’t already on its way, shall we?