If the asteroid decides it wants to play with us, the European Space Agency, at least one international space agency, will explore deflection methods at a conference that is coming soon.
The current plan, which has been made public, is for launching a spacecraft to the asteroid by 2028 in order to modify its orbit just enough to cause.
It to miss Earth in 2032. To frighten off additional asteroids, the other known approach is to just blast it to hell and maybe place its head on a lunar spike.
Although altering an asteroid’s orbit may seem like science fiction, it isn’t. When NASA purposefully crashed a spaceship into the orbit of an asteroid.
Named Dimorphos in 2022, it was effectively smacking Dimorphos like the little punk that it was. Simple yet efficient. What would happen if we tried it on Asteroid 2024 YR4 and it didn’t work?
At that point, we start using the heavy weapons. Maybe. For now, it’s all theoretical, and it’s likely that many space agencies will come to an agreement.
To find a solution that safeguards all life on Earth rather than a single organization coming up with a definitive answer. Tagged:
