Nuking asteroids, saving the Earth

From: John Frazer [mailto:johnf4303@...]

> It makes a much less exciting movie, but the best way would be to
thoroughly
> survey the asteroid while you're de-spinning it (many techniques
available,
> none requiring magic), then attach a solar or nuke thermal rocket to
it, fed
> from asteroidal ices.

Or how about a mass-driver? The advantage there is that one might well
run asteroidal regolith through a solar oven process that desiccates the
soil and freezes the vapors out, storing the ice somewhere. Since you
(very wisely) wish to leave the door open on later material usage of the
asteroid, one would in this case be throwing away the least valuable
parts of the asteroid as reaction mass, rather than the most valuable.

Regards,

Mike Combs