[meteorite-list] Ready To Tackle Armageddon (Don Quixote Mission)

From: Stephen E. Smith <vickie-steve-smith_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:09 2004
Message-ID: <3D5343EE.C935AD70_at_erols.com>

Hey All,
    I just hope they knock it the right way and not towards us. Remember the
Peter Principle. Steve

Ron Baalke wrote:

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2166598.stm
>
> 'Ready to tackle Armageddon'
> By Ivan Noble
> BBC News
> August 9, 2002
>
> A space mission to knock a
> potential rogue asteroid off course is undergoing feasibility studies with
> money from the European Space Agency (Esa).
>
> A Spanish company, Deimos-Space, is designing the mission and hopes its
> plans will convince Esa to give the go-ahead for a full scale test on a real
> asteroid.
>
> The company has come up with a plan, which it calls the Don Quixote mission,
> to launch a pair of probe spacecraft called Hidalgo and Sancho at a far off
> asteroid.
>
> One would hit the asteroid at extremely high speed, deflecting it slightly
> from its orbit.
>
> The other would observe the asteroid and make highly accurate measurements
> of what happened to it after the impact.
>
> Asteroid billiards
>
> The idea is that the mission would tell scientists how hard they would have
> to hit a real rogue asteroid heading for Earth in order to deflect it
> safely.
>
> Deimos plans to finish its study early in 2003 and hopes Esa will then come
> up with the cash for the actual mission.
>
> The company is optimistic.
>
> "We believe that the outcome of this mission would be good science,"
> Deimos-Space's Jose-Antonio Gonzalez told BBC News Online.
>
> "And we are trying to demonstrate the feasibility of the mission, not only
> in terms of astrodynamic calculations or technology requirements but also
> financially," he said.
>
> The company expects plenty of public and scientific interest in the project.
>
> High-speed impact
>
> "That's why we expect this mission to go on with the next phases, or at
> least with even more detailed studies on the key aspects of the mission," he
> said.
>
> If it does, a suitable asteroid will be selected and then Hidalgo will slam
> into it at extremely high speed, probably around 10 kilometres (six and a
> half miles) per second.
>
> Sancho will be orbiting the asteroid at a safe distance to see what happens.
>
> If all goes to plan, the asteroid's orbit will be disturbed in the beginning
> by a few fractions of a millimetre.
>
> The idea is that Sancho will measure this tiny shift and feed the data back
> to Earth.
>
> Tiny changes in orbit can become much larger over time and Deimos wants to
> use the experiment to calculate how to knock a real rogue asteroid off
> course.
>
> Early warning
>
> Whether such an approach to dealing with an asteroid threat would work would
> depend largely on how much warning there is.
>
> Hidalgo and Sancho would take many months to reach their target.
>
> Any Hidalgo-like satellite used to deflect an incoming hazard would have to
> hit it in just the right place and at just the right speed.
>
> Getting it right would involve great precision, but, as Mr Gonzalez points
> out, would not require the nuclear super-rockets of science fiction.
>
> If the project does get the go-ahead, the Don Quixote mission would provide
> valuable information about the composition of the target asteroid.
>
> "This mission would provide, for the first time, a look inside the
> asteroids," said Mr Gonzalez.
>
> "The results of the experiment would either validate our proposed strategy
> or might mean we have to think of other solutions, such as placing a huge
> solar sail on the asteroid's surface to use the solar wind to change its
> trajectory."
>
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Received on Fri 09 Aug 2002 12:24:14 AM PDT