The US space agency NASA plans to build a giant bat for deflecting asteroids that are on collision with Earth. The bat will be put into orbit 25,000 miles above the planet.
Recent near misses and hits, most notably the fly-by of a 150-foot asteroid and fireballs from space that landed in Russsia and injured some 500 people, have raised the alarm about the danger of being hit by a stray lump of space rock.
Powered by solar panels, the mammoth bat will be ready to swing and hit any rock bigger than 100-feet towards a distant nebula where it can do no harm to Earth. "Every strike has to be a home run," said the space agency.
A problem that has to be overcome is funding. It is so expensive to build the orbiting bat that the project is being funded by the international community, but there is disagreement over the design of the device. The US wants a baseball bat to be used, India and Australia are lobbying for a cricket bat, and Serbia wants a tennis racket.