Why haven't we tried to change the course of Asteroid 2004 XP14 to see if its possible to do it.?

Question

Should a Asterid be on a collision course with our planet ,we would know if the present technology would work.

Answer 1

So far our asteroid deflection technology is only hypothetical. We would probably want to study our options in more detail first, as well as learn more about the structure of asteroids. Actual missions to asteroids take lots of time and money, which no one is prepared to spend just yet.

Which brings up a key point - asteroid defense is pathetically underfunded, in both threat detection and deflection technologies. If more people asked questions like yours, maybe the powers that be would do something about it.

Answer 2

With present technology available on Earth and because this asteroid is so big, a 1/2 mile in diameter, it is very doubtful that we could fire enough nuclear weapons at it to change it's course. Also, our nuclear weapons are not designed to be able to travel that far (268,624 miles).

Answer 3

Because we didn't see it in time.
Because we already know our present technology is not good enough to do the job (yet).
Because people can't agree on the best way to actually deflect it, so our resources are divided.
Because it isn't going to hit us anyway.
Because it costs too much.

Answer 4

We have scientists that guarantee that it will, and it would be super-expensive (the government is criticised for its spending already).