Defense Measures A mission to smash into a space rock to deflect it and study its structure has been given priority over five other potential asteroid projects by the European Space Agency. The slam-bang ‘Don Quijote’ mission would help scientists figure out how to deflect or destroy any asteroid in the future that might be found to be on a collision course with Earth. The project uses the Spanish spelling of Don Quixote, the protagonist in Cervantes’ novel who has chivalrous ideas that tend toward the impractical. The lofty modern-day Don Quijote would help solve a practical problem. Scientists don’t know enough about asteroid insides to predict how one would respond to attempts to nudge it off an Earth-impact course or turn it into harmless dust. While no asteroids are currently known to be on track to hit the planet, experts say a regional catastrophe is inevitable in the very long run — over millennia.
And run-ins with small asteroids that could incinerate a large city occur ever few thousand years. The Double-team idea would involve two spacecraft — Sancho and Hidalgo — launched on different trajectories toward one asteroid about 550 yards (500 meters) in diameter. A rock that size would cause serious damage across a widespread area and absolute destruction at the local level. Sancho would arrive first and orbit the asteroid for several months.
It would deploy some penetrating probes to form a seismic network on the asteroid to examine its structure before and after its sister craft’s smashing arrival. Hidalgo would crash into the asteroid at about 22, 370 mph (10 kilometers per second).
The Essay on Asteroids Life On Earth
Asteroids Sixty-Five million years ago, 70 percent of life on Earth died. The most reasonable and possible reason this happened was an asteroid. An asteroid hit the Earth very hard, and in doing this, dirt and dust from the impact stayed in the air and it blocked out sunlight, that's why the dinosaurs died. An asteroid is a rock from outer space. Asteroids have orbited the Sun along with the ...
Sancho would observe from a safe distance, then move in for a closer look. It would study changes in the asteroid’s orbit, rotation and structure caused by the impact, said Willy Benz, a member of the mission’s study team from the University of Bern in Switzerland. The mission would ‘provide information about how an asteroid reacts to such stresses, which is an important step in the whole impact hazard reduction business,’ Benz said.
A European Space Agency panel considering six asteroid protection missions recommended Don Quijote ‘as the highest priority for further studies,’ Benz said. It is still in an early planning stage, however, and would eventually need funding approval. He said the mission could launch in five to six years. Don Quijote is similar to NASA’s Deep Impact mission, which is slated to fling a small probe at a comet on July 4, 2005. Comets are loaded with water ice, while asteroids are generally composed of rock and metals. Scientists know little about either, and both are thought to harbor clues about the solar system’s formation.
From a safe distance, the Deep Impact mother ship will take pictures and record other data as its probe blows a seven-story-deep crater in the comet Tempel 1. Experts say Deep Impact’s cosmic fireworks might be visible from Earth to backyard sky watchers. Both missions will alter the courses of the objects they hit. Deep Impact will fly past its target, limiting the time for close-up observations. The European craft, in orbit around its as-yet-unknown target, would take a more detailed approach to studying the comet before, during and after the collision.’ The important difference between Deep Impact and Don Quijote is that the target asteroid is studied six to seven months prior to impact and again three to four months after the impact,’ Benz said. Don Quijote could create a seismic shift in the understanding of asteroid interiors.
The probes that would be embedded in the asteroid prior to the main event would monitor how the rock’s structure changes in the collision by recording seismic waves created by small explosions the probes detonate. The method was used by Apollo astronauts to examine the Moon’s interior, and it’s used on Earth to search for oil, natural gas and other minerals. There are currently no firm plans by NASA or any other agency to deal with any impending asteroid catastrophes. Scientists have contemplated the theory of asteroid deflection and destruction, but no tests have been performed like the one planned in the Don Quijote mission. At the movies, the best way to stop an asteroid from wiping out Earth is to lob a few nuclear missiles at the rocky beast or blow it apart from the inside with megaton bombs. While those methods promise some fantastic explosions — and maybe a blockbuster hit — a team of engineers is looking at a more patient approach.
The Essay on Asteroid Impact Period Comets
Asteroid impact The solar system is filled with a barrage of comets and asteroids. Some of these cross the paths of the other planets as well as the earth s. The earth travels around in a swarm of projectiles. Comets and asteroids can and do strike the surface of the earth. Evidence from spacecraft exploring the outer planets and their satellites reveal the presence of craters scaring their ...
Their weapon: a swarm of nuclear-powered robots that could drill into an asteroid and hurl chunks of it into space with enough force to gradually push it into a non-Earth impacting course. Space Works Engineering, Inc. (SEI) researchers have completed a preliminary study into the robots, called Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission Ejector Node (MADMEN) spacecraft, under a grant awarded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) to come up with new techniques to defend the planet against pesky near-Earth objects (NEOs).
At the heart of the MADMEN concept is a mass driver, which would eject asteroid material as it is drilled out of the rock and sling it out into space using electromagnetic acceleration.
The recoil from that ejection would push against the robot, and therefore the asteroid, imparting a small amount of force for each shot. It’s like throwing rocks from inside a rowboat over time, you end up moving the boat. A preliminary design for a MADMEN spacecraft outlines a one-ton robot that would stand about 36 feet (11 meters) high, just slightly taller than NASA’s Apollo moon lander, on an asteroid’s surface. The mass driving ejector, a self-assembling tube, would extend out toward space ready to start its slow, steady push against the rock at a rate of one shot a minute or so. A liquid-propellant booster rocket could deliver the lander to its cometary or asteroid target. But the push would be small, and more than one MADMEN spacecraft would be required to constantly shove a space rock in one, uniform direction.
The Term Paper on Sedimentary Rock 2
Sedimentary rock formation begins with igneous, metamorphic, or other sedimentary rocks. When these rocks are exposed at the earth’s surface they begin the long slow but relentless process of becoming sedimentary rock. Weathering All rocks are subject to weathering. Weathering is anything that breaks the rocks into smaller pieces or sediments. This can happen by the forces of like wind, rain, and ...
Since each MADMEN robot could only give a small push to an asteroid over time, SEI researchers envision sending an entire fleet of them to a potential Earth impact or. The key, they said, is to have a lander on each face of an asteroid working together autonomously to push the space rock in one direction as it tumbles through space, each lander ‘firing’ as it comes into position. In a presentation to NIAC, MADMEN researchers compared their robotic devices to Star Trek’s cybernetic juggernaut, the Borg, a species that overlooks individual casualties in pursuit of its goals. The benefit of the swarm is redundancy some could be destroyed, others lost, and the rest can still challenge the asteroid. To build a swarm, MADMEN robots would have to be manufactured well before a potentially Earth-threatening asteroid was discovered. A stockpile of inert MADMEN spacecraft – each with its own fuel reserve – could be gathered into nearby parking orbits where they could be called upon if a stray space rock wandered too close.
Deciding how many MADMEN to send, thousands or maybe just four or so, would depend on the lead-time before a potential impact, researchers said. There are still a number of technological hurdles facing researchers before the first MADMEN robot could start its Earth-protecting mission. Not the least of which is the mass driver machinery needed to eject asteroid chunks into space. A lightweight space nuclear power plant also requires further study, as well as the drilling system that would eventually eat away at offending asteroids or comets.
The spacecraft would be designed to stay in space for many years, being called into action when needed. With the first phase of MADMEN study complete, SEI researchers are awaiting a decision from NIAC on whether to fund a second round of research that would focus, among other things, on the design of a technology-testing precursor mission to be carried out in the next decade. NASA has already demonstrated its ability to land on an asteroid when the NEAR spacecraft came to a soft landing on the asteroid Eros. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission is expected to drop its own lander Philae on a comet sometime in 2014. References Robert Roy Britt, On Mars: Earth-like Clouds and a New Type of Rock, space. com, 13 December 2004.
The Research paper on Natural Space Figure Threat Earth
Disclaimer The views expressed in this academic research paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Government or the Department of Defense... iii Preface Interest in developing an asteroid defense system, intensified by the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Many major US publications such ...
web update 041213. html Report of the [UN] High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Released 2 December 2004. web.
