Assessing Asteroid Threat

Makarand writes "According to a proposal submitted to the European Space Agency a fleet of five mini-probes should be sent each targeting an asteroid considered potentially dangerous. The mission objective will be to learn more about dangerous near earth objects so that we can plan how best to respond when under threat. Once in space, the probes would use ion propulsion engines that provide thrust by shooting out a stream of electrically charged particles. Power for the ion engines would be provided by ultra-lightweight solar arrays. Each probe will carry instrumentation to learn about the physical and chemical make-up of the target. The mission would cost around $150 mil which is quite low according to space mission standards."

Comments

Awesome link

[matt_fk]

However, it is more like $160m.. not $150m in USD. 159,972,995.78 USD to be exact, as stated by http://www.xe.com/ucc.

Re:One has to question

[Memetic]

"Why Jupiter, who's size compared to Earth is immense, has not had a large asteroid annihalate it yet? (ok, maybe it has, i don't know)"

It has been hit, very spectacularly, had it been Earth that was hit I doubt we would be discussing this.

See:
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Collision with Jupiter