How to destroy an Asteroid...

Hitting an asteroid with an ICBM is like trying to stop a tank with a BB gun first of all. Secondly they are not designed to leave earth orbit, hence they will never be able to engage targets very far out.

Not stopping it once again I will say 100ICBM's exploding right next to the asteroid will cause it to shift its path and if the entire human species was at risk we would reprogram or do whatever it takes to make the DSBM's(Deep Space Ballistic Missiles) to go into space and track the asteroid

Originally posted by WestPoint23
we would reprogram or do whatever it takes to make the DSBM's(Deep Space Ballistic Missiles) to go into space and track the asteroid

Reprogramming wouldn't help. ICBM rocket boosters just doesn't have enough energy to lift cargo out of earth's gravity.

You would need to use these commercial heavy lift boosters with additional stages.

Even Peacekeeper's ceiling is only 500 miles.
nuclearweaponarchive.org...

Well luckly once your outside the atmosphere and Earths gravity then in theory the rocket could just fly off into space with out additional force. So basically once its far enough it will fly off at how ever fast it were going. Then only small bursts of thrust are needed to change direction. But by the time we detect the asteroid it would be to late to make changes. Unless we simply load a nuclear warhead onto one of NASA rockets to launch things into the rest of the solar system.

Their is a small amount of drag in space from solar wind and a very small gravitational pull from other celestial bodies. But basically no drag. Hey we could use the moon as a sheild.

The most important thing is getting the eyes and ears of the planet looking for possible collisions objects. With early warning I believe with only a slight nudge one could be re-directed. At some point I would hope we have people stationed in space to respond quickly should we become aware of a collision path object. Additionally asteroids are good realestate, why destroy one when you could just re-direct it?

Blowing it up is a messy (unpredictable) and desperate act that might only marginally improve the situation, and should only be used as a last resort. Even at that you have to get something out into space to blow it up.

Using an energy beam you could s-l-o-w-l-y (so it doesn't crack and explode) heat up one side of an object it gradually getting hot enough to vaporize that area of the rock. Using that release of energy to nudge the object around. That would eliminate the need to even send a rocket or something there.