Plan to save the world from Armageddon
Space mission will deflect asteroid in practice to avoid doomsday destruction
SCIENTISTS are planning a space mission to nudge an asteroid out of its orbit in a practice run for saving the world.
IN a project reminiscent of 1998 movie Armageddon, the joint European-US Asteroid Deflection and Assessment mission will crash a probe into the space rock to test a possible doomsday-stopping scenario.
Nasa and the European Space Agency plan to plough a device into the 525ft Didymoon to test the principle that a much larger asteroid threatening the Earth could be deflected.
Two spacecraft, one to smack into the rock and the other to monitor the effects of the impact, will launch in October 2020.
They are due to get to Didymoon and its 2,460ft-wide partner Didymos in May 2022.
Dr Patrick Michel, lead investigator for the European Space Agency, said: “To protect Earth from potentially hazardous impacts, we need to understand asteroids much better.