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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

So what would be the best method for deterring comets/asteroids/meteoroids/etc from striking the earth.
There have been several proposed theories for destroying them or just throwing them off their path to colliding with us.

I think we can agree that blowing it up with a nuke as it heads towards earth just makes the situation worse because then you just get a shower of big chunks of a giant flying rock.
But what is the best system for moving/destroying them?

[LordSlowpoke]

best idea would be to intercept the bastard while it's still on high orbit and push it a few meters per second in any direction

preferably into the sun, just because

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

couldn't that cause a flare if the thing was large enough?

[10ebbor10]

In that case, big enough also means that it's big enough to tear all the planets from their respective orbits as it passes by.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Who said it had to pass other planets?

[WillowLuman]

If something has the pull to do it, it doesn't have to actually pass the planets, just their orbits.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

ah

ok nevermind on the solar flares thing then

[origamiscienceguy]

In the distant future, if deflector shields exist, what would they be, what would they block, and how would they work.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I always had good faith in magnets being able to deflect most things (or at least most metal things).

[LordBaal]

Mostly radiation, well the ones I can imagine.

[origamiscienceguy]

I always had good faith in magnets being able to deflect most things (or at least most metal things).

Then the enemy would just make tungsten bullets, or the like. (any non-magnetic metal would work)

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Would still work on a massive space ship scale, just deflect the asterioids instead of weave through them 

[flame99]

Not much to contribute to this, but PtW.

[Gentlefish]

Well. the USArmy just developed and mounted ships with anti-missile laser weapons.

So I'm guessing deflectors would be used to prevent Anti-Ship-Lasers, and in stead of AMM's we'll have Point-defense lasers to deflect fighters trying to enter the sphere of ASL influence and conventional warheads.

[origamiscienceguy]

but how would you deflect lasers? would you refract them away from your ship? Like water in a glass?