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To get an idea of the asteroid's size, consider that Texas is 1,289,000 meters long from the eastern side to the western tip. Although the asteroid is misshapen, for convenience we'll assume it's spherical with a diameter of 1,289,000 meters. If it has the same density as Earth (5500 kg/m³), the asteroid would have a mass of about 6×10²¹ kg. A 243 meter (800 foot) deep hole seems awfully insignificant compared to the length of Texas.

We couldn't help thinking that a Texas-sized asteroid deserved a Texas-sized hole. This set our imaginations running about how to dig one. The answer hit us like a meteorite: bowling! Why not blast a hole in the asteroid with bowling balls? Each bowling ball's blast could come from its kinetic energy. With the asteroid headed toward Earth at 22,000 mph a space shuttle could head away from Earth at 22,000 mph straight toward the asteroid. This would give a closing speed of 44,000 mph or 19,678 m/s. A bowling ball rolled out the front of the shuttle would eventually strike the asteroid with so much kinetic energy that the ball would explode. We use the following equation to calculate the kinetic energy of each ball:

K = ½mv²

Where K is kinetic energy, m is mass, and v is the magnitude of velocity. If we assume each ball's mass is 8 kg, then the kinetic energy will be 1.5 billion joules, or the energy contained in 740 pounds of TNT. This would be a pretty big blast, but not enough for a Texas-sized hole. However, a space shuttle can carry a 29,545 kg payload, or in other words 3,693 bowling balls. Assuming that each ball blasted a 2-meter-deep hole, 3,693 bowling balls could create a hole 7,386 meters, or 24,350 ft, deep. Put another 3,190 on a second shuttle and the hole could be deepened to 45,385 ft (13,767.05 meters) or about 50 times deeper than the movie hole. This would still leave room on the second shuttle for a 9 megaton nuclear bomb (the biggest in the United States arsenal). Roll a ball every 4 seconds and the hole could be completed in 7.6 hours. Of course, this assumes that the balls land one after another in about the same place and that the explosion of one ball doesn't disrupt the others.

Surely Bob's bowling buddies would have even more appeal than a bunch of oil rig workers. Think of the possible misfits. Imagine a scene where NASA guys try to bowl and throw gutter balls as Bob's boys guffaw. Only Bob's boys could put that special spin and accuracy on the ball needed for proper blasting. The NASA guys would have to tear out Bob's lanes and redesign them for installation on the space shuttles, but that would add to the drama. Once in space, one of of Bob's boys could get space psychosis, think he was playing basketball, and waste a few bowling balls. Bob could reason that his mass was just enough to compensate for the missing bowling balls and become a hero by not letting go of the last bowling ball as he hurled it down the lane. He would fly kamikaze-style into the hole and successfully blast the last few feet of depth.