Defending the Earth from Asteroids... what to do?

[classic33]

There's every reason why not. ICBMs go high enough to enter space, but not fast enough to achieve orbit, let alone escape velocity. The Russian R7 frinstance, was designed to launch a 3 tonne nuke at the US. It just about got the 80kg Sputnik 1 into a low Earth orbit. Why would any country develop a missile capable of nuking the Moon, or Mars, or targeting meteorites? It was always The Other Side that was the target.

"The Atlas D missile was the natural choice for Project Mercury since it was the only launch vehicle in the US arsenal that could put the spacecraft into orbit. But its reliability was far from perfect and Atlas launches ending in explosions were an all-too common sight at Cape Canaveral. Thus, significant steps had to be taken to man-rate the missile and make it safe and reliable."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_LV-3B

NASA chose the U.S. Army's Redstone liquid-fueled ballistic missile for its suborbital flights as it was the oldest one in the US fleet, having been active since 1953 and had[1] many successful test flights.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_Launch_Vehicle

 

[TheDoctor]

Proved my point. The US had one launcher that could put something in orbit. Missiles rarely need to orbit. You want to deliver a warhead to the other side, not have it go round the world for a few months. Obviously an ICBM can do suborbital, that's what they're designed for!

 

[classic33]

Proved my point. The US had one launcher that could put something in orbit. Missiles rarely need to orbit. You want to deliver a warhead to the other side, not have it go round the world for a few months. Obviously an ICBM can do suborbital, that's what they're designed for!

How far do you want to send it?
"The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 119 times between 1960 and 1978.[1] It was used to launch the first five Mariner unmanned probes to the planets Venus and Mars, and the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter unmanned probes to the Moon. The upper stage was also used as an unmanned orbital target vehicle for the Gemini manned spacecraft to practice rendezvous and docking."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas-Agena

 

[TheDoctor]

Atlas Agena was not an ICBM. It was a launch vehicle derived from an ICBM, with an extra stage added - that's what Agena is. ICBMs don't achieve escape velocity, and very rarely will achieve orbital velocity.
Added to which, the Mariner probe weighed under a tonne. That's not a lot to deflect a meteorite.
I'm going to stop debating with you now. I've got a space probe to work on in the morning.

 

[ISAAC_J]

When the asteroids come. I'll dig a hole and place my head in it
Then everybody else can kiss my @rse good bye !

 

[Hitchington]

Eric Pickles. Just stick him in the way.