Iowa State Working To Save Earth from Asteroid Collision

Iowa State University Researcher Bong Wie is tired of the Bruce Willis jokes about his plans to save the earth, according to an Iowa State University News service report.

But he does have a solution similar to the 1998 Armageddon film, in which an oil rig crew flew to space to break up an asteroid on a collision course with planet earth.

Wie launched Iowa State's Asteroid Deflection Research Center in 2008 and $600,000 NASA grants and 40 papers later, he is ready to test his plan.

Wie has developed a system (on paper) that would launch a satellite armed with a nuclear device into space, impact the asteroid and release the nuclear device in the crater blasting it into smaller less harmful parts.

“We have all the technology,” Wie told ISU News. “We don’t need anything new. But we need to engineer, integrate and assemble these technologies. And we need practice.”

Wie said he is ready for a $500 million test mission and plans to put his work on display at NASA's Technology Day on the Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 17.

The device would be used for asteroids that are only slighter larger than the asteroid that blew up in Russia's atmosphere. If the other asteroid, 2012 DA14, that bypassed earth that same day struck the planet it would have had the same effect as a 160 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, Wie told ISU News.

Though launching a nuclear device into outer space might sound dangerous, Wie said techniques have been developed to prevent premature explosions if something were to go wrong during the launch. And Wie said they will first test “a complete system without an actual nuclear device due to various reasons.”

Some theorize that an asteroid struck the earth bringing the extinction of dinosaurs. Could humans face the same fate?

“One thing we’ve learned in science over the last 50 years is how violent our universe is,” Professor John Basart, who assists Wie, told ISU News. “Yes, we have a violent universe and it’s important for our human race to plan for this. It’s not a matter of if; it’s when.”  AmesPatch