Canada joins NASA asteroid impact exercise, new satellite to hunt for planet-killers
CTV
NASA is planning to launch a satellite that will hunt for asteroids and comets that could pose a danger to Earth.
NASA is developing a new satellite that will hunt for asteroids and comets that could pose a danger to Earth. Known as the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, the infrared space telescope is scheduled to launch by June 2028.
"Currently our largest gap is we don't know the whole population of near-Earth asteroids that are out there," NASA planetary defence officer emeritus Lindley Johnson told reporters on Thursday.
"That's why we're pursuing the NEO Surveyor mission, to get a more complete catalogue of the hazardous population of asteroids that are large enough that if they were to impact the Earth, they could do significant damage."
On Thursday, NASA released a report that detailed its fifth Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise, which was held in April. The asteroid impact exercise saw scientists, emergency management officials and international observers like the Canadian Space Agency come together for a hypothetical exercise that assessed our planet's ability to respond to a hazardous asteroid or comet.
"The process for making decisions about space missions in an asteroid threat scenario remains unclear," the planetary defence report warned. "Only one technology for Earth impact prevention – kinetic impact – has been demonstrated in flight, and it has only been demonstrated once."
In 2022, NASA's DART mission smashed a spacecraft into a harmless asteroid and succeeded in shifting its orbit. The tactic remains Earth's best hope if the kind of asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs came hurtling towards our planet. Using a nuclear device to obliterate an asteroid like in the 1996 Bruce Willis film "Armageddon" was not considered an option.
"The potential use of nuclear explosive devices for planetary defence purposes poses legal, international, and proliferation concerns that have not been fully resolved," the report said.
