NASA’s ‘Armageddon’-style asteroid deflection mission takes off in November

I'm not sure we understand enough about the laws of the Universe to go playing pool with giant asteroids.

"we will be testing the possibility of intercepting one by smashing into it at nearly 15,000 miles per hour. This will change the speed of the moonlet by a mere fraction of a percent, but enough that its orbit period will be affected measurably. Knowing exactly how much will help us plan any future asteroid-deflection missions — not surprisingly, there isn’t a lot of existing science on ramming your spacecraft into space rocks."

Source: [link to techcrunch.com (secure)]