Asteroids are the small rocky bodies in the inner Solar System orbiting the Sun and their collisions – known as impact events – have played a significant role in shaping many planets. NASA is constantly watching space, categorising any Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO) if they could pose a threat to life on Earth. But they are also planning for the worst.
Marc Scheper heads-up the European Space Agency’s HERA programme – a mission to test whether it would be possible to deflect a huge space rock heading for Earth.
He said in 2019: “Asteroids are quite an interesting topic as they can be a really useful opportunity, just think of the resources and utilisation that some companies are thinking about.
“But they can be a threat.
“Just imagine if an asteroid collided with Earth, maybe a bigger one than we’ve had in past years.
They can be a threat
Marc Scheper
“Something serious would happen to Earth and mankind.
“So currently we are working on a study to investigate the opportunity or possibility to deflect or deviate an asteroid if it’s on course for Earth.”
Mr Scheper revealed that ESA has teamed up with NASA launching a satellite to investigate asteroid mechanics and how best to deflect a potential extinction level event.
He said: “We are targeting a binary asteroid, which is an asteroid and a smaller one rotating around it.
“By hitting the small one, we will modify its path around the big one and measure the effects.
“Then we can transfer that understanding to a large asteroid on its way to Earth.
“Knowing how an asteroid works or behaves before it’s on a collision course with Earth would allow us to put an impacter on the asteroid and modify its path slightly so it doesn’t hit Earth.”
Mr Scheper went into more detail about the overall project, known as AIDA, short for Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment.
He continued: “The impacter would be a probe, like a spacecraft or a satellite arriving at a very high speed.
“The momentum will be transferred to the asteroid and slightly modify its path.
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“The NASA and ESA co-operation is called the AIDA and we will be responsible for the monitoring spacecraft and the Americans would work on the impacter.
“A possible scenario for a future deflection mission would be to launch the impacter at a speed of approximately six or seven kilometres per second, roughly 21,000km/h straight into the asteroid.”
The original plan called for a European spacecraft, the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM), to operate in synergy with a large NASA impactor called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and observe the immediate effects of the impact.
AIM was cancelled in 2016 when Germany was unable to fund its portion, and after some backlash within ESA,
It has since been replaced with HERA, that will launch five years after DART to orbit and study the crater on the asteroid.
DART is currently planned to impact in 2022 on the small moon of asteroid Didymos, while Hera will arrive at in 2027, five years after DART’s impact.
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