China is Building an Asteroid Deflection Mission of its own, due for Launch in 2025 - by ScottyJ_PhD
You can sleep well knowing that space agencies around the world have already built robust asteroid monitoring systems, and have cataloged many thousands of solar system objects. None of them pose a realistic threat in our lifetimes . Still, there may be more out there we haven’t seen yet, so the CNSA’s new monitoring project is a welcome addition.
When it comes to asteroid hunting, the smallest objects are the hardest to see, but, like the shooting stars that streak harmlessly through the sky every night of the year, these are unlikely to cause damage. On the other end of the spectrum, the largest asteroids out there are capable of causing an extinction-level event, but are easy to spot and keep track of.
A “gravity tractor” planetary defense technique that leverages the mass of a spacecraft to impart a gravitational force on an asteroid, slowly altering the asteroid’s trajectory. Credit:The CNSA’s new monitoring program will be paired with an engineering effort to design and build a high thrust rocket that can carry a kinetic impactor: a payload designed to punch an asteroid with enough force to change its orbit. The target asteroid they plan to test the impactor on is, as yet, unannounced.
NASA and ESA are also taking their first steps toward developing kinetic asteroid defense capabilities. NASA’smission, launched last November, will attempt to change the orbit of Dimorphos, a tiny moon circling asteroid Didymos, by slamming into the moon at high speed. This is the first test of its kind, and the resulting change in trajectory is likely to be very small.
The DART mission will impact Dimorphos in September of this year, and will be followed up in 2027 withThe existential threat of an asteroid impact is small in the short term, but is almost certain in the long term. As such, asteroid monitoring systems and deflection tests like DART and the CNSA’s new impactor project are important first steps to keeping Earth safe, and making sure we don’t go the way of the dinosaurs.
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