making hot rocks

There has been talk about possible danger from Asteroid Apophis in 2036
after being deflected when passes us in 2029. I have seen discussion
of using an impacter like that NASA recently used on the comet and seen
discussion of "painting" an asteroid to deflect it. However, if
the asteroid is just a pile of rubble, how do you "paint" its
surface. Its surface is very likely to change with time. If you are
worried about the structural integrity of the asteroid, an impact is
the worst thing you could do.
This puts us back to the old idea of using nukes but it is not as
depicted in the silly "Armegeddon" movie where they drill into the
asteroid. Instead, you explode the nuke some distance from the surface
and allow the intense burst of low energy x-rays to cause
"blow-off" from the surface. Considering that we have a lot of
control over the x-ray spectrum and even maybe the x-ray emission time,
nukes offer the widest range of "push" options.
I think (back of the envelope sipping a cup of coffee thinking) that a
nuke exploded at sufficient distance so that the ratio of distance to
asteroid rubble pile diameter was large, would actually tend to push
the rubble together while giving it an impulse as a whole.
Has there been a study of the various combos of nuke yield, x-ray
spectrum, pulse time, distance etc to get various DeltaV for various
types of asteroid? It would be fun to do and wouldn't cost anything
if one could get access to the classified nuke data and access to some
x-ray deposition impulse codes.
Once that was known, it would be interesting to see what the various
options would be for different orbital scenarios, such as the optimum
place to do the detonation(s). I assume it might take several
detonations of various kinds.
Once that was done, start looking at existing hardware such as ICBM
warhead busses to carry and dispense the nukes. What could be done to
modify them. What could be done in a short term and what would need
development. What launch vehicles could be used.
Has any of this been done?

Frogwatch wrote:
Has there been a study of the various combos of nuke yield, x-ray
spectrum, pulse time, distance etc to get various DeltaV for various
types of asteroid? It would be fun to do and wouldn't cost anything
if one could get access to the classified nuke data and access to some
x-ray deposition impulse codes.

Someone ran the numbers (on Usenet, but I don't have the reference to
hand) for Apophis back when a 2029 impact was an open question, using
public data. The answer was that a single medium-size bomb (that could
be carried by existing launchers) detonated near the asteroid would
impart enough impulse for a miss. This could be done with plenty of time
to spare for followup shots in case the first one didn't do the job, and
it could be kept below the asteroid's gravitational binding energy to
make followup shots easier if needed.

--
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