Robots designed to fight killer asteroids

NASA, Hollywood's Sci-Fi feeder, has decided to finally listen to reason and put into place a planetary defense system that would protect us in the event of a killer asteroid, an alien invasion, or killer clowns from outer space.

"At the movies, the best way to stop an asteroid from wiping out Earth is to lob a few nuclear missiles at the rocky beast or blow it apart from the inside with megaton bombs. While those methods promise some fantastic explosions — and maybe a blockbuster hit — engineers are looking at a more patient approach. Their weapon: a swarm of nuclear-powered robots that could drill into an asteroid and hurl chunks of it into space with enough force to gradually push it away from an Earth-impacting course. "

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