Space Erase

Source:http://goo.gl/t94q8

Two things are common knowledge today: 
1. NASA's funding is a lot lower since the time of the 'Space Race', and therefore launching rockets is incredibly difficult.
2. Space rocks hitting Earth can cause great disaster
With these two facts in our knowledge we can draw some problems and solutions. The problem is that we see meteors hitting earth and causing severe damage to not only buildings and property, but also people. We've all heard of the recent occurrence in Russia, though TheEconomist highlights an incident in 1908 where a meteor hit London and more than 1000 people were injured. There is a serious threat coming from space, not by aliens but rather a callous universe. Now that we see the problem the solution might include a smaller scale NASA. We can see that this is a perfect time for NASA to intervene and build a system that can detect space rocks with sufficient warning and either blast them or push them away. With this idea we can solve the problem of space meteors but we can also have a better and more useful space system. 

While I feel that solving this problem is very important and while this solution makes sense and most likely will work, I feel that TheEconomist is ignoring a few indirect consequences that might happen. While technology like this can be used for good as TheEconomist suggests, there is also the possibility that it can be used for bad. How are we to be sure that America wont  let meteors that are heading for their enemy countries just fall therefore killing thousands of people? What happens when the systems has a fault and accidentally puts people in risk? Would there not be large lawsuits? While I would like to see a plan such as the one TheEconomist has given come to fruition  I really believe that the questions I posed (and more) should be considered before.