We live in a huge frightening universe where strange space asteroids can be destroyed on a planetary scale. It's just a matter of time before a large space killer comes into view of our telescopes.
Features of asteroids
Not all asteroids have a uniform composition and flight path. Some scientists argue that their deflection is caused by surface detonation, while others advise detonating them at a distance to clamp a larger surface area and cause more movement.
But there is a third option that is able to protect our Earth from asteroids - this is a change in the flight course of a space body.
Slowly and surely, a small NASA spacecraft equipped with a solar sail can change the direction of the asteroid. This is a preliminary conclusion by Finnish researchers. They studied how an improved solar sail called the E-Sail uses charged bindings to extract momentum from solar wind particles in order to obtain improved thrust. He could have saved the world.
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How solar sail works
For all its size, a solar sail is quite light, so a heavy launch vehicle can launch an asteroid into orbit and send it in a completely different direction. After a long voyage, the ship tracks an asteroid armed with harpoon tow ropes. If the cosmic body is not strong enough to be captured by a harpoon, there is always the possibility of capturing a dust ball in a large net.
The distance between the sail and the asteroid must be carefully measured, which means that the spacecraft must be “smart” and equipped with special engines to perform this operation.
The researchers say that even the E Sail system, whose technical data was not so advanced, could move a large asteroid by two Earth radii in ten years.
A researcher from the University of Arizona and a colleague from the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed a solar sailboat system to be installed in place of a tugboat, but then used an aluminum-clad mylar that could focus a beam of sunlight into the space rock. This heated the surface and created a jet of vaporized material that triggered the motion needed to push the asteroid out of the earth's path.
Earth Disaster Protection
There are some scholars who believe that the Svalbard Global Seed Bank, established on a Norwegian island in 2015 to preserve the world's most important crops, is sufficient protection against planetary disaster. But when it comes to asteroid impacts or natural nuclear attacks, backups are not enough.
The idea of creating an object that stores DNA records of all life on Earth
About 10 years ago, a lunar scientist proposed the idea of creating a lunar object that could store DNA records of all life forms on Earth, embryos, microbes and seeds.
The author of this idea is Bernard Foin, Lead Scientist for ESA SMART-1 Mission, which ended in 2006.
The scientist created a fully automated facility that worked and was maintained for as long as needed. The transmitters had to pass DNA sequences to solidified receivers on Earth, where survivors of a planetary disaster could use genetic engineering to accelerate the restoration of ecosystems and civilization.
If we talk about the safe storage of DNA, then the Moon has conditions suitable for this purpose. Obviously, being far from Earth is a great advantage of a satellite when it comes to a large number of doomsday scenarios.
Storing materials in Earth's orbit is not as safe with the constant threat of meteorites and the struggle with Earth's gravity, challenging the long-term existence of our planet.
The moon also has abundant sunlight and water to help keep the facility running.
And most of the missing conditions can be created artificially, for example, a dug storage under the regolith to protect against meteoric bombardment. But for the moon, it is dangerous due to the lack of an atmosphere on it.
The scientist is currently working on Mars programs at ESA, and the idea of a lunar storage has become utopian. She probably needs a stimulating factor, some kind of impending disaster, which will force humanity to go beyond its concept of space.
Sun Control
In 1992, Russia launched a solar mirror called Banner 2 into space with a unique mission to reflect light onto the planet, providing Western Russia with additional light equivalent to the full moon. The light patch was 5 km wide. It spread at a speed of 8 km per second. The second attempt failed in space when the sail hooked on the antenna and the flexible mirror unfolded.
Of course, solar reflectors can be used to change the amount of solar energy that goes to Earth, but does humanity need it? Does this model suggest mixing clouds with gray to make them more reflective, and do we need such a sun when there is a global warming problem?
It turns out that it all depends on the scope. For starters, intense rays of light could make solar farms more efficient and begin to manage large-scale clean energy projects like molten salt towers.
By promoting plant growth with increased sunlight, more carbon can be absorbed.
Climate recovery
In 2001, Lowell Wood of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory calculated that deflecting just 1% of sunlight would restore climate stability.
People of the future can use massive solar reflectors to reduce the total amount of sunlight reaching the planet. This would require about 600,000 square miles or mirrors.
Krafft Erike, the legendary space engineer and contemporary of Werner von Braun, who was involved in the development of German and American rocket programs, spent 10 years studying the reflection of sunlight and how it can benefit humanity. His article, published in 1979, is a great example of how smart people approach serious engineering problems.
Creating a world home in the sky
The world population is approximately 7 billion and is constantly growing. According to the United Nations, it could reach 11 billion people by 2100. No one can be sure how this sustainable process will affect our planet, but even with technological advances in food preservation and production, ecological collapse can be predicted.
The planet needs a second floor
There is not much space on the surface of our planet. Perhaps the Earth needs a second floor. In 1992, Richard Taylor published an article in the well-known British Interplanetary Society magazine detailing how humans can reconstruct the "world." The way he saw it would take too long and require a lot of investment. The scientist proposed to build massive domes 3 km high.
In some distant world, the central tower would be home to 500,000 settlers, and the dome would be transparent to harness the light for the greenhouses and the entire life-giving ecosystem.
The transfer of this idea to Earth is not bad, especially in the future, in which the population will be concentrated in megacities, and resources will be sorely lacking.
Building worlds over deserts, oceans and poles could help feed the population, ease the demand for the planetary ecosystem, and give humans a place to live close to food and rich in solar energy.
Vertical supercities have been on the drawing boards since the 1960s, but modern scientists are proposing an ecosystem model that is self-sustaining. The big problem with the life support system is that it is out of control. For example, in 1993 the plants of Biosphere 2 did not produce enough oxygen.
Maya Muzashvili
