AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa State University professor has a plan for saving humanity from a devastating asteroid collision, and he’ll soon meet with officials at NASA to discuss his proposal. Engineering professor Bong Wie says one way to stop an asteroid from hurtling toward earth is to break up the rock with a nuclear device. He will meet Tuesday with NASA officials to talk about his research, which is being hashed out at the Asteroid Deflection Research Center in Ames.

The Des Moines Register says Wie plans to request a five-year, $5 million grant to put the research into action and launch a practice satellite. A NASA spokesman says there’s no grant request scheduled in the Tuesday meeting. Wie says developing the project will take more than a decade.