Hitting Asteroids with a HAMMER

Sometimes two things come together to jolt your imagination from scary science fiction to even scarier science fact. My wife and I were surfing channels the other night and came across the 1998 movie, Armageddon, which was a science fiction story about an asteroid destined to hit earth. It came out several months after the movie Deep Impact, which had a similar plot. In Armageddon two space shuttles were to be launched toward the asteroid, land, then drill down to its core and then deposit a nuclear weapon. The crews would take off and the weapon would be detonated blowing the asteroid into tiny pieces.

Well, the next day, I'm going down through my ASME SmartBriefs and see a link to a NewAtlas article about NASA's plan to "bat away Earth-bound asteroids." Could not believe what I was reading.  Basically the same scenario as the movie Armageddon, except the rockets NASA plans to build would have dual capabilities, either kinetic impact to change the course of the asteroid, or deliver a nuclear weapon, just like in the movie. What is fascinating is that while in the movie the timeframe for the asteroid to hit Earth is like in days, the timeframe NASA would be faced with would be in years. They have a 10-year scenario where 34 to 53 separate rockets would be involved, or a 25-year scenario where only 7 to 11 rockets would be needed. The difference being the closer to Earth the more impact is needed to change the course of the asteroid.

And to top off what can only be Hollywood thinking is NASA's name for the rocket, "Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response," or HAMMER. Is that a great name or what?  A movie title if I have ever heard one. - Dr. Tom

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