China Doing Crazy Things in Space, Just Because it Wants To. By Brian Simpson

     I guess when you have plenty of money you can relax and do crazy things. If you are a nation, longing to overcome the humiliations of the past, as China is seeking to do (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation),  then you attempt things like trying to capture an asteroid and fire it into the moon’s orbit: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/china-considering-mission-capture-asteroid-fire-it-into-moons-orbit-1621217?mkfrom=adsup&read=1. The initial idea is to mine the asteroid for minerals, but just for the heck of it, it would be one-upmanship to put the asteroid in the moon’s orbit too. Trump that, Trump!

     Now, given Murphy’s law: http://www.murphys-laws.com/, there are a multitude of problems with this. Imagine a screw-up that leads to the asteroid not orbiting the moon, but deciding in its infinite cosmic wisdom to pay mother earth a visit, ground zero for impact, Beijing. Very dishonourable asteroid. Very desolate planet.