When American government representatives asked NASA head Charles Boden what the best response to a large asteroid headed for New York City would be, his answer was simple: ‘Pray.’
But the space agency has now come up with a slightly better idea.
Specifically, it’s going to test the idea of deflecting an oncoming ‘planet-killer’ using the gravity of another object – a small spacecraft, or a spacecraft carrying a space rock.
It’s not quite as dramatic as Bruce Willis drilling into the asteroid with a nuclear bomb, but it’ll do.
Instead, the Asteroid Redirection Mission is going to ‘practice’ in the mid-2020s, grabbing a boulder from a near-Earth asteroid just to show they can.
As the team does it, they will test what NASA describes as ‘planetary defence techniques’ that could be used to divert an oncoming asteroid.
NASA says the ‘effectiveness of this manoeuvre is increased, moreover, if mass is moved from the asteroid to the spacecraft by the capture of a boulder.’
MORE : Whacking great asteroid will fly past Earth this Friday
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