In reply to David Roberson's message of Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:45:19 -0500 (EST): Hi, [snip] >A blast years in advance might spread the material in both time and space >sufficiently to protect us.
You have to be a little careful here. If it's too far in advance, and the blast doesn't accelerate the pieces beyond their own escape velocity, then the gravitational pull between them might bring the thing back together again before impact. It may require a bit of math to get the timing just right. BTW I don't think the water would be necessary. At the temperature of a nuclear blast, a high temperature plasma forms, surrounded by a gas. I think the plasma and the gas would provide enough pressure. However it might require a "Tsar Bomba" to do the job. BTW2 Asteroids that are "rubble collections" would obviously be better candidates than completely solid bodies, but unfortunately we don't have any say in the matter. ;) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
