In 2022, the first tests of a device that will help in the fight against asteroids, potentially dangerous for planet Earth, are to pass. The main task of specialists is to change the orbit of a space object that threatens our planet. For this, the specialists of the American agency NASA have joined forces with the European experts of ESA. The joint project, called AIDA, will use a new weapon that will strike the asteroid.
In 2019, the spacecraft will fly to meet the asteroid Didim, and they will meet in 2022. At that time, the huge Didim will approach the "blue planet" at the nearest distance - 11 million kilometers.
After that, the experiment should begin. Scientists have chosen this particular asteroid for a reason. The fact is that another baby asteroid with a diameter of 150 meters revolves around a large celestial body with a diameter of about 800 meters at a distance of 1.1 kilometers. It is into this small "satellite" that a special probe should crash at speed.
Specialists need to establish the center of mass of a celestial body, because if the impact is incorrect, the experiment will fail - the asteroid's orbit will not change. A special striker weighing 300 kilograms will crash into the satellite of the asteroid Didim at a speed of approximately 6.5 kilometers per second. Another spacecraft will track this process and transmit data to the Earth, Boris Shustov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta portal.
Boris Shustov also commented on his opinion on the destruction of asteroids using nuclear weapons. The specialist believes that from a technical point of view, it is quite possible to develop this, but work in this direction is not being carried out, because there is a ban on the use of nuclear weapons in outer space.