Why is nuking hazardous asteroids not a viable option? I’d rather be hit by smaller pebbles instead of an actual rock

Question

Thanks everyone for answering

In: 9

Answer 1

Scientists did a test on the theory and it would work, very well. They predict that 99% of the mass would be removed. The catch is that you only have a window to use it – two months or more. Believe me it does in fact happen that a death rock is suddenly coming to Earth’s direction out of nowhere, it happened not too long ago. If you don’t spot them in time, you’d need to use the deflection system (pushing it or hitting with a force so hard it moves away). This was also the simulation of 1 megaton bomb with 365 foot wide asteroid (which is the size that causes the Tunguska event)

The secondary problem is that you need a massive launch vehicle to use it. Rockets are huge even to launch supplies in space. You need to build something even bigger to launch it into deep space. You’d also need to make a nuclear warhead design for this mission. If an asteroid is bigger, you’d need to scale up to even more crazy level. Only two countries in the world has this rocket and nuclear capabilities (for now): Russia and the United States.

The third problem is that let’s say you get it all dandy, well. What if it fails? It suddenly explodes half-way because of an error or something? Well, now you have nuclear waste scattering over a massive area. Seems less threatening than a rock smacking into Earth, but if you get a second one or third one launch (which is surely the case as backups or overkill), then you still have to deal with the massive ecological disaster.

Let’s say that there is no time. Well, it wouldn’t have time to break up in smaller pieces. Instead, you’d not get pebbles (which would burn up anyways) instead you would get building size rocks or bigger causing an explosive shockwave like a nuclear weapon right before hitting the ground damaging and killing countless people like a shotgun effect. It would cause massive losses of life on the shorelines as massive waves would swallows inland, it would cause widespread wildfires, total economic collapse. It wouldn’t end the world, but it would still cause the borderline collapse of human civilization as the damage would be so widespread. Imagine the Tunguska event all over the globe, it would be catastrophic on a scale that we honestly couldn’t even imagine since the Black Death.