ESA's "Armageddon" asteroid mission


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A mission to assess if deflecting an incoming asteroid is possible using a high velocity impactor.

ESA = European Space Agency

ESA Don Quijote page....

Asteroid 99942 Apophis wiki page....

Link....

Plan is similar to the plot of Hollywood film Armageddon

It seemed far-fetched on the silver screen.

But the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission similar to the plot of Hollywood movie Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis and his intrepid team attempt to blow up a huge asteroid that?s hurtling towards Earth.

The real version, if it goes ahead in 2015, will see a satellite fired at break-neck speed into a ?test? asteroid to see if its course changes.

The aim is to assess whether it would be possible to save Earth using this method, should we discover that an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet.

The mission, called Don Quijote, will involve sending two spacecraft towards a near-Earth asteroid.

One will be an ?impactor?, which is fired into the asteroid, the other an orbitor that will analyse data from the experiment.

One potential target is a 1600ft-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis, which experts say does have a minute chance - around one in 250,000 - of hitting Earth in 2036, so it would be useful target practice.

The 500kg impact craft, which will be called Hidalgo, will ram into the asteroid at a speed of around six miles a second.

The orbitor, called Sancho, will scan the collision and monitor whether the asteroid changes direction at all.

There will be a lot of fingers crossed in mission control, as a big asteroid impact could wipe out life on Earth.

Nasa, meanwhile, is planning something even more spectacular.

It wants to put humans on the surface of an asteroid within 15 years.

But sending people to one won't be easy. You can't land on an asteroid because you'd bounce off - it has virtually no gravity. Astronauts couldn't even walk on it because they'd float away.

Reaching it might require a Nasa spacecraft to harpoon the space rock.

Nasa is thinking about jetpacks, tethers, bungees, nets and spiderwebs to allow explorers to float just above the surface of it while attached to a smaller mini-spaceship.

Kent Joosten, chief architect of the human exploration team at Johnson Space Center, said: 'This is the big step. This is out into the universe, away from Earth's gravity completely... This is really where you are doing the Star Trek kind of thing.'

dq_hr_impact2_large.jpgdq_seq5_00156_large.jpg

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It will work until Steve Buscemi starts going crazy...

But no seriously, it's nice to see that they are trying to deflect Apophis. I just hope they deflect it in the right direction. ;)

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Land on asteroid.

Open hyperspace window in front of asteroid.

Fly asteroid through Earth via hyperspace window.

Leave hyperspace on other side of Earth.

???

Profit.

Gods cannot be killed....or deflected.

False gods.*

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This will at best only deflect it a little - Ariane V can't deliver enough mass or velocity for a lot, just enough to measure what it'll take to do a real deflection. A larger launcher, say Falcon Heavy with a Raptor 2nd stage, could hit it much harder or deliver a device that could move it by other means.

Options could include a large solar reflector (light pressure), a solar-electric plasma drive to mount on its surface, nukes, a gravity tug, whatever. An upscale FH like that could probably orbit 70+ metric tons, and a 2nd launch could deliver a huge Raptor Earth departure stage to get it there fast.

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Something doesn't make sense about this mission and why they picked this rock in particular. I think someone figured out that there is a very high probability that it will hit Earth, and this "experiment" is an attempt to intervene as early as possible.

(not serious)

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Back to being serious...

I'm extremely pro space exploration, but you'd think that we don't need to launch the impactor portion of the mission for this. An asteroid is on a ballistic trajectory, governed by the gravitational attraction between it and other bodies nearby (nearby being in astronomical terms, of course). We can track its position, and therefore obtain a reasonably accurate estimate of its speed. By plotting its orbit, we can estimate its mass. Knowing its mass, speed, position, and trajectory would allow us to solve for what is needed to deflect the asteroid onto a non-threatening course.

I could see launching this just to see if we can in fact reach out to a particular point in space far from low earth orbit - much could be gained from such a mission. I just question the decision to carry an impactor with the goal of measuring deflection due to impact. I feel like there could be a much more useful mission. Perhaps the entire probe could be designed to latch onto the asteroid and if possible drill some core samples to test its makeup. Even more useful would be testing feasibility of launching from the asteroid with the goal of returning to earth. Wouldn't have an insane gravity well to contend with...could be a great dry run, especially in light of NASA's apparent goal of getting humans onto an asteroid.

/ramble

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Deflection is affected by more than velocity, trajectory and mass - elasticity, chemical composition and solid vs. rubble pile are also in play, and the best way to measure those is impact.

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thanks for all the info guys, but even i'm not sure i'm comfortable with this mission 100%...i mean obviously it's necessary to know we have the option, but it kinda feels off...and why did they pick Don Quixote for the name? wasn't he on a futile quest? or did they go for the part where he's totally determined?

overall, i support this mission much as i'd support almost any space venture, but i'd kinda want them to leave the poor asteroid alone in a way.

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Yeah was gonna say what happens if they deflect it into our path.. :p

That's like hitting a cue ball with a cue stick and it coming back towards the cue stick. Won't happen. It will go in the direction it was going + the direction it was struck from (vector addition).

And if it's hit head on, 180 deg from the direction of travel, with the exact magnitude of force as the object exerts moving in a direction, it will stop. Or something like that.

Either way, they aren't going to hit it towards us.

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@DocM - Quite true. However, regardless of composition / elasticity / status as a pile of small asteroids or one larger one, it would seem to me far more efficient (from a difficulty standpoint) to induce an explosion near the object. A nuclear warhead with a yield of one megaton corresponds to 4.184e+15 joules of energy. Detonated at the right position relative to the asteroid/object, it seems logical that that would be plenty of force to vaporize much of an object, and send the remaining chunks into a new orbit. If additional force was needed, either send a bigger bomb or perhaps multiple bombs. If I was more awake I'd try and calculate how much force would be needed to move Apophis by measurable margins, buuuuuut my blood caffeine content is dangerously low at the moment.

Of course, that would raise questions regarding the militarization of space; however, I feel like in the face of extinction we'd make an exception and let anyone with the capability go ahead and blast some rocks :yes:

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Given the stakes I think exceptions to the various space treaties would be easy enough to get.

Have to look it up, but IIRC in a paper the nuke option was explored and they calculated it would only work with solid metal or stony asteroids. If it were a burned out comet, chondrite etc. or a rubble pile it would not be effective.

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May I add, that there is the chance that Samantha Carter or Rodney Mckay will think of something before this happens (of course those hat dono they are working in the Cheyenne Mountain).

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Have to look it up, but IIRC in a paper the nuke option was explored and they calculated it would only work with solid metal or stony asteroids. If it were a burned out comet, chondrite etc. or a rubble pile it would not be effective.

If you can find it, please post a link. I'd be really interested in reading it, even if it does make me question my own intelligence :rofl:

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