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NASA-ESA Project Will Shoot an Asteroid To See What Happens
astroengine writes What better way to understand how to deflect an incoming asteroid than to smash into one to see what happens? This may sound like the storyline to a certain science fiction movie involving a team of oil drillers, but this is science fact, and Europe has started planning a mission to map a small target asteroid that NASA will attempt to shoot with a speeding spacecraft, no nukes required. As the first half of the joint Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission, the European Space Agency this month has started planning for the launch of its Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) in October 2020. AIM's target will be the binary asteroid system of Didymos, which is composed of a main 800 meter-wide hunk of space rock circled by a smaller 170 meter-wide asteroid informally known as "Didymoon." It's the smaller asteroid that the joint NASA/ESA mission is interested in bullying.
A single data point isn't all that useful with respect to understanding the mass and composition of asteroids. There are potentially a variety of asteroids around-- ranging from solid hunks of metal or rock to loose bunches held together by their very weak mutual gravitational attraction. A test would be useful for demonstrating the ability to intercept one, navigate to an appropriate place to push, and then push. Depending on how far out they catch it, a very low thrust, very efficient thruster pushing for a long time might be able to produce a useful amount of deflection.
"I expect you're happy with computer modelling for many things,"
Actually, you're off target. Computer modeling amounts to little more than "educated speculation". Or, "educated guess". That is true of all models. Remember GIGO? Garbage in, garbage out.
As time passes, as programmers learn more, and as computers get better, and as real world experience proves and/or disproves the models, models DO get better. But, don't ever, ever, EVER expect me to stake my life on what a model says.
The problem with climate change modeling, is that far to many buffoons use the models as "proof" that the world is warming.
Hey, I had "proof" that the world was warming when I was in third grade, in 1963. Mrs. Stevenson explained that we are in an interglacial period. I KNEW that the year 2000 would be warmer than the year 1963, all the way back then!
But, all of our sophisticated idiots today want to blame every last erg of increasing energy on this planet on human intervention. DUHHHH!!
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