A group of astronauts, scientists and engineers said over the weekend that an asteroid may come too close for comfort in the year 2036, and that the United Nations should take the lead in adopting a mission to deflect it. The asteroid, named Apophis by astronomers, has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on April 13, 2036. Former astronaut Rusty Schweickart says that although the odds of this particular asteroid striking the Earth are low, a recent congressional mandate given to NASA to expand its near-Earth asteroid tracking is expected to find hundreds or thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future.
“It’s not just Apophis we’re looking at. Every country is at risk. We need a set of general principles to deal with this issue.”
Schweickart says that the United Nations should draft procedures for identifying asteroid threats, as well as making decisions on if and when to take action against any prospective threats. The currently preferred consensus, which is seen as a more viable alternative than trying to “nuke” an asteroid, is to dispatch a spacecraft that would utilize a gravitational pull to try and alter the course of the asteroid away from Earth.
The “Gravity Tractor” could maintain a position in close proximity to the asteroid exerting a slow, steady tug. For an asteroid like Apophis, an estimated 460 feet long, 12 days of gravity-tugging would be required at an estimated cost of $300 million. Naturally, the sooner the execution of the mission the higher the chance of success.
NASA hasn’t commented officially on what the precise effect of a 460-foot asteroid striking the Earth would be, saying that they need to know material substance and trajectory before making any predictions. However, some independent assessments have said that an asteroid of this size could potentially wipe out an entire city or region.
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[...] If you recall I posted a few weeks ago about an asteroid threat that the UN was called on to respond. Building on that, NASA announced today that it doesn’t have the funding available to track all of the potentially dangerous asteroids. It has the know-how and the capability to track them, it just doesn’t have the necessary resources to accomplish the task. “We know what to do, we just don’t have the money,” said Simon “Pete” Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. [...]