Joel Hendon

The European Space Agency Plans Mission To Divert Earthbound Asteroid


Posted: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html

Many will remember the 1998 Hollywood movie “Armageddon” starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Billy Bob Thornton. The fictional movie had an asteroid as large as the state of Texas heading towards earth and the mission of these stars was to blast it out of the sky.

Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) are currently planning an effort somewhat different to the fiction story, to try and deflect the trajectory of an asteroid as it hurdles towards the earth. They hope to have their plan ready to test by 2015.

The test will involve two spacecrafts. The mission is named Don Quijote and the first of the spacecrafts will be an impactor named “Hidalgo” weighing 500kg (1102.312 lb.) crashing into the target at a speed of six miles per second in an attempt to alter the asteroid’s trajectory. This to be followed by a another craft named “Sancho” which will orbit the asteroid to measure and determine any alterations of direction.

Although this is considered a test, the proposed target is a real asteroid 1600 ft. wide titled 999432 Apophis. This asteroid is not expected to hit the earth, however, they give it a chance of one in 250,000 of doing so in 2036.

It has been recognized for a number of years that an asteroid of sufficient size could destroy all life on earth. So the tests by the ESA as well as NASA are considered highly valuable and perhaps vital in years to come.

NASA has their own “science fiction like” plan in the works but from an entirely different angle. They are considering spectacular plans of putting men on the surface of an asteroid. This might not sound so daunting, except for a huge problem. There is extremely little or no gravity on these asteroids. No craft could land on them, nor could a human walk on them but would instead, float away.

The hope is that a craft could be forced onto it temporarily with jets from the top and then some type of harpoon to fire into the space rock. They also are studying the possible use of jetpacks, tethers, bungees, nets and spider webs to allow astronauts to be suspended just above the surface while a mini-craft hovers overhead.

This all seems like science-fiction alright. And it is all over my head (pun intended).
Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

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