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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."

4 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Ooh! Ooh! I know! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Let's let them test it on a certain company in Redmond! ROR! LOFFLE!!!

  2. Yes! by mboverload · · Score: -1, Troll
    Great, another useless program to waste money on.

    I for one welcome our Armageddon asteroid overlords.

  3. This is a diversion. by Power+Everywhere · · Score: -1, Troll

    We've survived this long without being wiped out my extraterrestrial matter hitting our crust; we don't need it now. This is a sinkhole for our attention so that other things may be done with our funds without curious eyes watching.

    --

    BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.

  4. Re:I have a better solution by faldore · · Score: 1, Troll

    I can't imagine that Bruce Willis crashing into an asteroid can in any way be construed as funny. Gee Dubya on the other hand...