railroad engineer and scientists have drawn up an prescribed plan for the US administration in the eventuality that we identify an asteroid on a hit course with Earth .
Neither of the two options presented are particularly refined , but both would hopefully be sufficient in preventing a major impact . If we have enough time , we could send out a fleet of spacecraft to knock it out of electron orbit . But if we do n’t see it coming until the last minute , then it leaves us with few pick but to nuke it .
These are the conclusions drawn by researchers in a new bailiwick published in the journalActa Astronautica , in which they uncover a concept spacecraft call Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response ( HAMMER ) that could protect us from these potentially destructive interlopers . The plan are to be discussed further next month at a conference in Japan .
They are based on NASA ’s current space vehicle OSIRIS - REx , which is on its way to have a look at the asteroid Bennu that is roughly on the same range as us and will likely pelt along by sometime in 2135 , with aone - in-2,700chance of hitting us . The researcher reckon that any anti - asteroid craft would belike weigh in at 8 tonnes ( 8.8 tons ) and cost $ 800 million , something that current funding is nowhere nigh ready for .
While the lump of blank rock music is known to be roughly on the same area as Earth , one of the chief difficulties is actually knowing where the asteroid is drop dead to hit in the first place . This is because there are all sorts of cistron that could influence where it will be in 100 years ’ clock time , from solar wind to the gravity of other big planets in the Solar System .
This becomes of great importance when consider our options on how to preclude it from hitting us , particularly if we ’re conceive the bankrupt it with a ballistic capsule alternative . If , for illustration , we attempt to decelerate the asteroid down by smack it with a spacecraft and causing its orbit to take down , we could execute the peril of pushing it further into our path rather than out of the way .
All this require us recognize the asteroid far enough in improvement . If we suddenly find that there is a rock candy on an close at hand hit path with our major planet with small warning – which is a very real possibility – bump it out of orbit with a spacecraft just wo n’t do . This means we ’d only have one other naturalistic pick – we ’d have to go nuclear .
For some fairly obvious reasons , boom a rocket contain a nuclear warhead into space in a bid to shatter a fast - approaching asteroid is not something that many nations are specially great on . The written report suggests that when it come to the nuke , adult is better . Those currently have by the US would probably be sufficient in preventing an encroachment .
All we need now is to make certain Bruce Willis lives for another 100 year .
