European Space Agency launches project to help smash meteorites off collision course with Earth

The ESA mission will test the feasibility of changing the direction of an asteroid’s flight in space

A rendering of the Psyche asteroid

Hills are covered with fallen and burnt trees after a meteorite hit in 1908. Getty

People look at what scientists believe to be a chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. AP

People standing near a six-metre hole in the ice of a frozen lake, reportedly the site of a meteor fall, outside the town of Chebakul in central Russia. AFP

A meteorite trail is seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk in 2013. AFP

The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas), pictured in Hawaii.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, under construction in 2019, promises to reveal more objects faster than any previous telescope. Photo: LSST

A computer-generated image shows the impact of the Dart projectile on the binary asteroid system, Didymos. ESA/AFP

Spotlights illuminate the Saturn V booster rocket on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida carrying the Apollo 8 spacecraft and its crew of three astronauts, on December 19, 1968. AP

Spacecraft for a mission aimed at saving Earth from an asteroid strike will be built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The ESA will make spacecraft for Nasa that can inspect the aftermath of an asteroid impact in space, after signing a $154 million (dh565 million) deal.
"We want to try for the first time to steer an asteroid on its potential collision course with Earth," ESA director Rolf Densing said.
Nasa is scheduled to launch a craft in June 2021 to collide with the Dimorphos asteroid to test whether it could nudge objects that might be threatening Earth on to a safer path.
After the Dimorphos collision, the ESA will launch in October 2024 its Hera craft, named after the Greek goddess of marriage, to map the impact crater and measure the asteroid's mass.

It should catch up with Dimorphos in late 2026 for a six-month survey.
Dimorphos has a diameter of 160 metres, which ESA said was big enough to destroy an entire city if it were to hit Earth.
Hera, set to be about the size of a desk, should navigate autonomously around the asteroid while it collects data.
It will also launch mini 10cm satellites, which will be able to fly much closer to the asteroid's surface.
Marco Fuchs, chief executive of German space and technology group OHB that will develop the Hera craft, said trying to divert an asteroid was like "playing billiards" and noted the challenge of steering towards such a small celestial body.
"You have to steer very precisely, you have to find it first and then approach it in such a way that you can really observe what has happened as a result of the impact of the American probe," he said.