[meteorite-list] Paint Could Alter Asteroids Course

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jan 2 22:45:23 2006
Message-ID: <200601030343.k033hkA11454_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2481662005

Paint could alter asteroids course
The Scotsman (United Kingdom)
December 31, 2005

Scientists have spoken of their plans for a project to stop asteroids
hitting the earth.

Researchers from Glasgow University are looking into the possibility of
spraying lumps of rock and ice with paint to knock them off course.

Spraying the asteroids using a robot droid in space would heat or cool
the surface using the sun's rays, hopefully diverting them from hitting
the planet.

It is thought this method would be much more effective than that
fictionally used by film star Bruce Willis in the blockbuster
Armageddon, where he and a team drilled a nuclear bomb into the core of
a massive rock.

Dr Gianmarco Radice, who is leading the research, told the Daily Record
newspaper: "With an asteroid you are faced with the danger posed by one
piece of rock.

"Blow it to pieces and you could be faced with the even bigger problem
of many more smaller pieces of rock hurtling towards the earth.

"Ours would be an unmanned mission. There would be no need for Bruce
Willis."

The ??300,000 three-year study into asteroids at the university is being
backed by the Government's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council.

The main threat is currently a 390-metre wide asteroid called Apophis,
which Nasa believes could hit earth on April 13, 2036.
Received on Mon 02 Jan 2006 10:43:45 PM PST