A plan by an Iowa State University professor to save the planet from a meteor collision continues to streak toward reality.
The problem being puzzled over at the Asteroid Deflection Research Center in Ames would devastate humanity: an asteroid hurtling toward the planet, detected too late to be able to use other means to knock it off its collision course with Earth. In this scenario, breaking up the rock with a nuclear device would be the last and best hope, according to ISU engineering professor Bong Wie.
Wie is scheduled to meet Tuesday with NASA officials in Washington, D.C., to talk about his team’s research. He will also make his pitch for a five-year, $5 million grant to work out the technical details of launching a satellite into space to intercept an asteroid.