ATLANTA, May 19 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers said Wednesday they think the best way to protect Earth from killer asteroids is to develop an army of asteroid-eating robots.
The nuclear-powered robots could land on asteroids whose orbits threaten Earth, drilling into them and hurling chunks of rock into space with enough force to push them gradually into non-Earth impacting courses.
"We're aiming to examine the whole idea of these robots," said Matthew Graham, design project manager for the study at SpaceWorks Engineering Inc., an engineering consulting and concept analysis firm.
SEI researchers have completed a preliminary study into the robots, called Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission Ejector Node spacecraft, or MADMEN.
The robots are basically mass drivers -- machines that would eject asteroid material as it is drilled and sling it out into space using electromagnetic acceleration. The recoil from that ejection would push against the robot, and therefore the asteroid, imparting a small amount of force for each shot.
"It's like throwing rocks from inside a rowboat," Graham said in a telephone interview. "Over time, you end up moving the boat."
