China has started to develop a defense system against asteroids that could collide with Earth, reported yesterday local media China Daily.
The system aims to “improve the terrestrial capacity for surveillance, alert and management of extraterrestrial dangers”, explained this weekend the deputy director of the China’s National Space Administration (CNSA), wu yanhua.
“We will make plans for the defense system, develop simulation programs and organize maneuvers for essential procedures,” said the official.
Wu also expressed that China is willing to “share solutions with other members of the international community and work with others to ensure the safety of the planet.”
According to the researcher, establishing a network of early warning Satellite and terrestrial-based installations would be one of the first steps.
“Near-Earth asteroids need to be categorized and analyzed, which of them could be a threat to humanity,” Wu said, adding that technologies that could be used to neutralize the hazards will be investigated later.
A mission to test the technology
The CNSA has plans to send an experimental mission in the year 2025 or 2026 to study a asteroid considered potentially dangerous by scientists and act against it, according to the deputy director.
This experimental mission will serve to verify technologies and methods by which an asteroid heading towards Earth can be deflected.
Despite being the first time that the Asian country reveals a plan created specifically to act against dangerous asteroids, some scientists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences they already declared last year that they could be used rockets divert the trajectory of a threatening object.
In recent years, China has invested heavily in its space program and achieved milestones such as the Chang’e 4 probe landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019, becoming the first country to do so.
