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| ©Sky News |
A former Nasa astronaut claims plans to blast Earth-bound asteroids out of space with nuclear weapons is not the best way to beat the threat.
Apollo 9 legend Rusty Schweickart, who clocked up more than 240 hours in space, was responding to a Nasa report which said nukes were the best option to avert a catastrophic asteroid collision with Earth.
He says most heavenly bodies could be redirected by ramming them from behind or towing them to safety with unmanned spacecraft.
Speaking at a public meeting in San Francisco, Mr Schweickart says Nasa was put under political pressure to come up with the nuclear missile solution.
The astronaut-turned-scientist, who piloted the lunar capsule in Apollo 9, now heads the B612 Foundation, which promotes plans to alter the course of asteroids hurtling towards Earth.
He says that at present we simply do not know what is heading towards us, but as new powerful telescopes come online, we will have a clearer picture.
"The good news is that we can do something about this," he said.
"The marriage of we human beings and the machines that we've created are now at a level of capability which enables us to ... stop this process from occurring."
In May 2005, he told the US Congress that a mission to attach a device such as a radio transmitter to asteroid 99942 Apophis should be a high priority.
It is estimated that this asteroid has a 1 in 6,000 probability of striking the Earth in the 21st Century.
The latest data indicates that the chance of Apophis impacting the Earth is 1 in 45,000 in 2036.
Comment: The notion that "we can do something about this" may be an indulgence in more than a little wishful thinking.