Just to answer that question...no. And it doesn't have to be nearly that
big.

"Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" were not that far off in their descriptions
of what could and would happen, but "When Worlds Collide" would be more on
the mark of what we could do to escape. One ship with our best and
brightest...and you and I both know that neither of us are going on that
trip.

Beryl Turner
"Bootstrap Bill" wrote in message
...

"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
...
Or just that an asteroid was in route to hit earth? How would we deal
with it, other than to take it in the chin?

The basic way seems to be to get several-many nuclear weapons out there
as fast as possible.
The more weapons and the more time you have, the more it can be
diverted.
Having years is good.
Centuries is great.

The basic idea is to blow up the bomb around a radius or so from the
asteroid, and flash-vapourise the surface of the asteroid.
This then boils off almost instantly, and pushes the asteroid the other
way.
Repeat until course misses earth.

What if it were discovered that a Moon sized asteroid were on a collision
course with Earth, and would arrive in 25 years? Would we have enough time
to evacuate anyone? Could we establish a sizeable O'neal colony jin that
amount of time?