Beijing is seeking to establish a system capable of effectively monitoring asteroids and altering their trajectories to protect Earth from potential impacts.
According to RT, Wu Yanhua, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), revealed on April 24 that Beijing plans to conduct a test attack on an asteroid in 2025.
Asteroids pose a constant threat to Earth from space.
On the occasion of China’s Space Day, Wu stated that China will establish a monitoring and defense system for near-Earth asteroids that will also be capable of protecting spacecraft.
This system, comprising components both on the ground and in space, will catalog and analyze asteroids to determine which ones pose a potential threat to Earth or humanity. Notably, the system will install computer simulation software to model the potential impacts of asteroids.
According to the Global Times, the project is still awaiting approval from Chinese authorities. The approval process requires coordination among various departments.
China is not the only country concerned about the threat posed by asteroids. The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also developing a similar project. In November 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft to collide with a small asteroid to test whether it could change the asteroid’s trajectory through impact and whether this could be an effective measure to protect Earth from such threats.
The DART spacecraft, mounted on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, will strike a small asteroid orbiting a larger one, altering its speed. The entire process will be observed and measured from Earth, with the spacecraft expected to achieve its goal within 10 months of launch.
In a statement in October 2021, NASA indicated that, over the next 100 years, no asteroid capable of causing serious damage poses a risk of colliding with Earth. However, the agency also noted that only about 40% of asteroids in space have been discovered.
A meteor fragment fell and caused an explosion in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. Although the object burned up in the atmosphere and only small debris fell to Earth, the explosion injured over 1,600 people, with dozens requiring hospitalization.
