4 ms·
Just reading up on Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and the NASA's OSIRIS-REx. They all targeted large (~1km) Apollo group asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu, Bennu respectively
by pmayrgundter 5y ago
Just reading up on Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and the NASA's OSIRIS-REx. They all targeted large (~1km) Apollo group asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu, Bennu respectively).
The asteroid that has had the highest probability of collision with Earth (1950 DA) was also an ~1km Apollo group asteroid, and Apollo asteroids are the source of almost all of the known Potentially Hazardous Objects for Earth.
The stated objectives for these missions is basic science, such as understanding the proto-planetary conditions of our solar system. That makes sense and also near-Earth asteroids are practical targets for missions!
But it seems likely to me that someone is also building profiles for interception, should we need it. So it's curious that hazard profiling isn't mentioned in the objectives for these missions (not that I can find.. correction appreciated!) That makes me wonder if there's something else out there not being talked about. And Osiris Rex would be King God of the Dead... shrug, nothing to see here ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_asteroid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25143_Itokawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25143_Itokawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(29075)_1950_DA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(29075)_1950_DA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object#Largest_PHAs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object#L...
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html
https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2006/0602.shtml https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2006/0602.shtml
- czbond 5y agoWe'd better figure out Apophis in the next 100 years...
- pmayrgundter 5y agoAnd hope the current data is correct!
- jazzyjackson 5y agoI happened upon Brian Cox's video earlier today where he relates the film "Don't Look Up" to real world concerns, [0] and he mentions the DART mission [1] is a test-run for deflecting an asteroid, the press release reads, "DART [...] will impact a known asteroid that is not a threat to Earth. Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes." I suppose landing on comets/asteroids was the first step, now we can actually try moving them! (this first attempt is 160 meter diameter, I'm sure the result will be valuable to adjusting our simulations for larger hazards.) My favorite part of the Brian Cox video is he mentions that the same tech for asteroid defense will be used for asteroid mining, maybe there is a profit motive to spur investment after all. Still, a botched asteroid capture could play out like the movie, we can only hope we have the chance to start small :) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntaidEKs_Ks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntaidEKs_Ks [1] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-first-test-mission-to-defend-planet-earth https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-f...
- dotnet00 5y agoA key goal of these missions has been to understand the composition and structure of asteroids, which happens to also be pretty important for how they might be defended against. If they're a loosely bound pile of dust, then it might be better to dig in and blow them apart into smaller pieces to mostly burn up, but if they're more solid, redirection would probably be the only viable solution.