Coming off the recent news that NASA is Short Money to Watch for Near Earth Asteroids, a company in Britain (Stevenage space company, EADS Atrium) is developing a program to deter those we have on our radar. The plan is to send a spacecraft out which will sit itself around 50 meters away from the asteroid. By using the gravity of the device itself, the scientists are hoping to shift the asteroid's orbit just enough for it to pass safely by Earth. Sounds like a good idea in theory, however the device needs to be launched many years for the "gravity tractor" to bump the asteroid off of its collision path. So this will pretty much just be a big waste of money. Especially since the 2012 is right around the corner. We don't have time for an asteroid deflector to take years. Get with it people!