They’re finally realizing that nuking errant asteroids aren’t the best way to deal with them.

Improvements in detecting and understanding asteroids, in fact, are what is prompting the change of thinking toward a slow approach, which was exemplified by presentations at a NASA-sponsored workshop on asteroid hazards in September near Washington that “pretty much sent the nuclear weapon idea home packing,” said Dr. Erik Asphaug, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and one of the workshop’s organizers.

I’ve only been saying this for over a decade…

I find the new notion of moving it by changing its albedo impractical as well, though. It’s not very predictable. I’d rather develop techniqes that actually allow us to manage and herd the things, so we can more easily avail ourselves of their resources.

I think the problems of “anchoring” a propulsion system to one are overstated. Worst case is you use a net, and pull, rather than push it. The exhaust can be angled off so it doesn’t hit the asteroid. There would be some cosine losses, but you’d use the asteroid itself for propellant, so engine efficiency wouldn’t be that critical anyway.