This article was taken from the March 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Bong Wie, director of the Asteroid Deflection Research Center at Iowa State University, has a missile -- the Hyper-Velocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle (HAIV) -- that could blast nearby space rocks by exploding them from within, Armaggedon-style. Up front: a "kinetic energy interceptor". In the back: a nuke. The kinetic part drives into the rock, and the bomb blows it to pieces. It sounded good to Nasa: it gave Wie a $100,000 (£61,000) grant. The HAIV's design puts the bomb inside the rock, where it creates ground shocks, magnifying the force of the blast twentyfold. Wie plans to test the system, sans nuke, around 2020, but he says he could get one airborne in less than a year if a collision looked imminent. It'd cost $500 million (£334 million), but that's a few grains of stardust compared with the end of civilisation as we know it.
For more Big Ideas, check out the following stories:
Big Idea #1: Turn deserts into power plants
Big Idea #2: Make aeroplanes economical and rechargeable
Big Idea #3: Builds skyscrapers out of diamonds
Big Idea #4: Fuel Earth using micromachines
Big Idea #5: Put digital displays on contact lenses
Big Idea #6: Declare war on incoming asteroids
Big Idea #7: Spray Wi-Fi hotspots on to everything