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ESA Plans Test of Asteroid Defense System

Posted by michael on from the jousting-with-ceres dept.

vinlud writes "It has been announced by Dutch television ESA has chosen the Don Quijote programme to investigate the possibilities of altering the collision course of asteroids heading for Earth. The program, selected among five other studies, contains two spacecraft: Hidalgo and Sancho. Hidalgo will impact an asteroid of approximately 500 m diameter at a relative speed of at least 10 km/s while Sancho will retreat to a safe distance to observe the impact. An animation of the mission sequence (6.49 Mb) can be downloaded from here."

5 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. That's NOT important by superpulpsicle · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's important is a very efficient backup of slashdot so I can still post in the case of a continent size meteor hitting earth.

  2. Hidalgo's ultimate goal... by sdo1 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Hidalgo will impact an asteroid of approximately 500 m diameter at a relative speed of at least 10 km/s...

    ... altering its trajectory into a orbit scheduled to collide with Earth in 2006 at which point the real test will begin.

    -S

    --
    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
  3. Damn! by slimyrubber · · Score: 4, Funny

    Guess we are doomed to die by hunger, terrorism, violent climate shift, war or MPAA.
    I was really betting it would be an asteroid.

    --
    [ I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance ] -- Isaac Asimov
  4. Testing the Asteroid Defense system for yourself. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Try it out here.

  5. This is the European space agency by panurge · · Score: 4, Funny

    They work in all SI units. So, no conversions. Perhaps that's why Ariane is reliable.

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    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.