Nasa may land on asteroid to save Earth

Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:06 pm » by **Abyssdnb**

Nasa is contemplating landing a probe on an asteroid that could be on its way to hit Earth.

It's only a one in a 1,000 chance but if it did the consequences would be huge. Potentially the damage could be much bigger than a nuclear bomb.

The asteroid is a long way off yet, if it does hit us at all it will not be until 2182.

Regardless, scientists at Nasa want to try and collect a few samples in order to help predict where it might land.

At the moment, Nasa is considering the mission along with a few others at a two-day workshop in Washington DC.

If the plan were to go ahead then it would emulate films like Armageddon and Deep Impact which saw attempts to land on asteroids in order to stop them from hitting Earth.

Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:10 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

This is a serious subject, and needs to be looked at, we also need to have 100% percent of the sky mapped out ad all objects within mapped also.

Very important to mankind.

Good post.

Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:13 pm » by **Funnyman46**

Agreed. But how is NASA gonna make money from this? I say get the public all excited about the possibility and then go for the cash. No BUCKS, no Buck Rogers

Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:24 pm » by **528hz**

Another plight to get people to accept the weaponisation of space.

Few things bug me about this....it's gonna take 172 years to reach us? how the feck they gonna get to it any time soon? and how does taking samples from it tell us where it will hit?

Just doesn't add up to me. any links to the source?