They're finally realizing that nuking errant asteroids aren't the best way to deal with them.

Improvements in detecting and understanding asteroids, in fact, are what is prompting the change of thinking toward a slow approach, which was exemplified by presentations at a NASA-sponsored workshop on asteroid hazards in September near Washington that "pretty much sent the nuclear weapon idea home packing," said Dr. Erik Asphaug, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and one of the workshop's organizers.

I've only been saying this for over a decade...

I find the new notion of moving it by changing its albedo impractical as well, though. It's not very predictable. I'd rather develop techniqes that actually allow us to manage and herd the things, so we can more easily avail ourselves of their resources.

I think the problems of "anchoring" a propulsion system to one are overstated. Worst case is you use a net, and pull, rather than push it. The exhaust can be angled off so it doesn't hit the asteroid. There would be some cosine losses, but you'd use the asteroid itself for propellant, so engine efficiency wouldn't be that critical anyway.

I recall hearing about one idea where a probe would suck up many tons worth of dust and ice from the surfance of any available asteroid and then dump all that material directly into the path of the Earth intersecting asteriod. Seemed like a novel approach but yet I imagine that would not provide a predictable result either. I like the propulsive idea as well or perhaps large solar sails could do the trick.

The key to this being, of course, that the thing is spotted far enough in advance for the gentle approach to make the difference in plenty of time. Are we getting better at that, or are we still seeing most of these near-misses virtually after the fact?

We're getting better, but we could get a lot better a lot faster if we spent a little bit more on it.

Of course, a nuke's not going to help for a last-minute one either.

All problems can be solved by the right amount of Plutonium.

MuHaHaHa!!!!!!!!!!

First, we need reliable, inexpensive access to space - and a variety of proven machines to do the work.

Unless they change the laws to make private exploration/exploitation of space practical, we are sitting ducks.

Plutonium. Lots of it.

Hold a UN conference on the side of the asteroid facing earth. The hot gasses coming from the conference will push the asteroid away from the earth, thus killing two birds with one stone.

So real life finally catches up with science fiction, eh?