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NASA-ESA Project Will Shoot an Asteroid To See What Happens

Posted by timothy on from the johnny-cash-with-a-bigger-budget dept.

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.

17 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. To see what happens... by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why am I imagining "hey, y'all, watch this!"?

    1. Re:To see what happens... by geeper · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, it would be ironic if the asteroid that wiped out the human race was one we smashed into just to see what would happen.

      --
      Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
    2. Re:To see what happens... by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 2

      Huld muh beer, Bubba! Imma fix'na push thehs 'ere rhed buht-un! Thehs oughta be a hewt-n-ollar!

    3. Re:To see what happens... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

      Why am I thinking, "It's April Second - is the silliness over yet?" Geez Louise - the first of the sillies that I read yesterday hooked me. Really, I was disbelieving and believing at the same time. I had to read all the way through the article, then look at the next headline before I realized - "IT'S ALL BOGUS!!"

      So, now, today, we're shooting asteroids?

      How 'bout we just build a time machine, and go back to the arcades of 1980. We can shoot asteroids all day long.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    4. Re:To see what happens... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, it would be ironic if the asteroid that wiped out the human race was one we smashed into just to see what would happen.

      ... or if it turns out that the "asteroid" is a camouflaged Vogon starship, and by attacking it, we trigger an interstellar war.

    5. Re: To see what happens... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaints, and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now.

      What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know! I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own regard. Energise the demolition beams! God, I don't know⦠apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at allâ¦

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    6. Re:To see what happens... by mitcheli · · Score: 2

      So, does this mean that when this "smashed" asteroid's new trajectory causes it to hit another planet with sentient life that we will at fault? How does that law suit work?

      --
      Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
    7. Re:To see what happens... by cusco · · Score: 2

      Wish they would just give the Navy's R&D budget to NASA. We already know how to kill massive numbers of people and destroy an entire region's infrastructure, and neither of those process need to get any more efficient.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  2. Re:Simulation by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How would you simulate it on a computer when you don't know the internal make up of the asteroid?

  3. The Bush Doctrine again by sandbagger · · Score: 3, Funny

    This unprovoked attack on an asteroid may end up being more trouble than it's worse. We could end up bogged down in an endless conflict with it.

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    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  4. Re:Don't we already know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    We don't really know asteroid masses, though -- we know densities of iron and rock, but asteroids are probably porous to some extent, so we don't know how much of an asteroid is solid and how much is empty. Cracking one open with an impact is one way to find out for sure.

  5. Re:Don't we already know? by bitingduck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Too much D&D guys by CreatureComfort · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I cast magic missile at the darkness!"

    --
    "Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
    Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
  7. The best divison of labor by Headw1nd · · Score: 2

    The Europeans go in trepidatiously, carefully measuring things, trying to understand the asteroid. A couple months later the US flies in fast and hot, and blows everything up, mission over. As an American, I love it.

  8. superman by dwpbike · · Score: 2

    is not amused

  9. Re:Simulation by Maritz · · Score: 2

    We don't know how rigid or how porous they are internally. So as with everything else, real-life testing is required.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  10. Re:Simulation by cusco · · Score: 2

    Actually binary systems seem to be fairly common, about 16% of all asteroids have a moon. The advantage of attacking the moonlet is that they can get very exact measurements of the effect of the collision fairly quickly by measuring the change in its orbit.

    BTW, "shooting stars" are generally about the size of a grain of sand. Good luck getting rid of all of those.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin