NASA Asteroid Deflection Test Imminent!

[LadyTevar]

If there's an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, I would like them to be able to move it as far off that course as possible, thanks.

Not one asteroid will never fall on Earth to kill all life on the planet. These are just our fears. This is far from reality. But politicians and scientists can speculate about that.

Let's just relax and go drink beer or play computer games.

The problem is, Earth has been hit many times by asteroids, and yes, out of all those that hit, only one was an Extinction Event.
But reality (and mathematics) both say "If it happened once, it can happen again."
Look at Tunguska in 1908. Now, it hit out back of the beyond, but shock wave were measured as far away as Germany, UK, and reportedly Washington DC. Natives 65miles from the blast center were knocked off their feet, and the shock wave knocked down houses.

Chelyabinsk Meteor was also an Air-burst, and it caused damage to over 7200 buildings. The shock wave had a total kinetic energy before atmospheric impact estimated from infrasound and seismic measurements to be equivalent to the blast yield of 400–500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.4–1.8 PJ) range – 26 to 33 times as much energy as that released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima.

It's estimated that the Tunguska meteor was twice the size of the Chelyabinsk Meteor.

We don't need a "Extinction Level" meteor to be worried.

[Solauren]

Not one asteroid will never fall on Earth to kill all life on the planet. These are just our fears. This is far from reality. But politicians and scientists can speculate about that.

Let's just relax and go drink beer or play computer games.

Okay, and if something like the Tunguska event (June 30, 1908 - equal to a 12 Megaton nuclear blast) hit say, New York city, what would the death and economic toll be?

Check out https://asteroidcollision.herokuapp.com/, and play with it a bit. Leave it centered on a major city.
Note - the asteroid we hit DART with is about 170m in diameter. Imagine that hitting New York. Guess what?
New York STATE would be gone, and the surrounding states would take alot of damage.

That's what NASA et all are hoping to come up with - something to stop a rogue space rock killing 20million people in a single shot, and causing massive economic disruption.

[bilateralrope]

Yes and No. It depends on what the objective was, if it was to just hit a rock and move it as much as we can then it worked, if it was to alter the orbit by a specific amount then it failed. If they really planned for 10 minute change and managed 32 then that means that there are some major factors which we're not aware of which resulted in 3x the change expected. So we know we have the technology to alter a rocks orbit but not the knowhow to alter it by the amount we want which might be important in future.

If there's an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, I would like them to be able to move it as far off that course as possible, thanks.

Not one asteroid will never fall on Earth to kill all life on the planet. These are just our fears. This is far from reality. But politicians and scientists can speculate about that.

Let's just relax and go drink beer or play computer games.

Care to show your calculations ?