B612 Foundation and 2004 YD5 Asteroid Capture?

aisnota writes "The B612 Foundation hopes to alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015 and seems ready to do the obvious and capture 2004 YD5. Slice it up, put the pieces into aerobrake containers like a simplified version of the Mars landers. Then just sell the pieces on EBay to fund more ambitious projects."

Comments

Re:feeling of dread

[Rob Carr]

Asteroid 2004 YD5 is about 5 meters long. Had you read the article, you'd know this.

A five meter asteroid, should it impact the Earth, would do little damage. Yeah, if it hit someone, that would suck, but the odds of that are small. This is the perfect size to practice on - especially if you're carving it up into parts for recovery.

We need the practice in case we have to do it on a much larger asteroid to prevent it striking the Earth.

The scientific benefit from the pieces of the asteroid would be immense. As a meteorite collector, I know I'd be bidding on chunks of it on eBay just to add to my collection.

The piece of a Mars rock I've got is pathetically small. Having a 10kg rock in the collection would be fun.