NASA's Asteroid-proof Plans

Earth-Saving Plans & Review

     In accordance to the 2018 article, NASA has thought of a handful of ways (hopefully more to come) to foresee and eradicate monstrous asteroids. I loved how they have references towards the movie "Armageddon" which means they actually have researched many tactics, some more reasonable than others. The American government is taking cautionary steps detailed in an outline what White House organizations and NASA would do to deflect and indicate "hazardous" ones. In honesty, Lindley Johnson has a cool job for carrying a super-heroic name of planetary defense officer. Both him and Lewis have expressed with certainty that these protocols would be done unmanned which is assuring I guess.
     It is concerning that all life on a little marble of rock is being threatened by a foreign mass of object and we haven't even scratched the surface of what's to come in outer space. The first important step is to improve existing telescope programs and data imaging through radars. This would help expecting and differentiating the ones that would threaten the globe "and determine where an incoming asteroid could strike." Bypassing the Trump administration restraints, NASA plans to attempt deploying (ARM- Asteroid Redirect Mission) & (DART- Double Asteroid Redirection Test) hoping to deflect the asteroid's point of trajectory using kinetic impact. DART will demonstrate this by targeting Didymos (size of the Washington Monument) and its moon's orbit shifting it slightly cm/s enough to miss the planet entirely.
     Secondly in preparation of a world disaster, NASA is holding meetings with the United Nations Committee for the helpful/useful observations and records about NEOs around the world. The depiction below is the spatial extent of damages if a 100 feet wide asteroid would hit New York City. FEMA have announced that they have been strengthening and routinely exercise NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols since 2010. Basically the same alert system such as weather emergencies or Amber alerts. It says "provide emergency responders and help with the recovery process" which means if plans A fails and if the asteroid is small enough it won't pop the Earth.
                             
     There have been more than 18,000 Near Earth Asteroids recorded since 1980 where some has landed over areas of other nations like Russia. DART is in part of a larger collaboration with AIDA where experts of every scientific field predict and designate necessary steps to aid in any way for their government. Another cool thing is that DART contains the NEXT-C ion engine which supports smart navigation system into outer space; it's like a Tesla but ET style. It automatically uses imagery from cameras to target specifically for the moon. The second key element would be the utilization of a new generation of gridded ion propulsion so that it can use the exact force to attract Didymos. ROSA helps to have enough power supply for output of the electric propulsion engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNSYuY6N1Rs
      Throughout history NASA counted over 700 meteorites striking Earth unwelcomely. Most that are still floating freely have the capacity of about 100 to 300 megatons of energy. However, only shock waves by the impact blast or thermal radiating energy is enough to cause damage within the radius and injure many structures including people (i.e. Russia). Many people take the risk seriously because it has potentially large catastrophic consequences but fail to rationalize the possibility of the slim possibility. A second approach would be using a method called "Gravity Tractor" which pulls the asteroid in a new direction. Many people are fond of the idea of heated lasers that would ultimately break apart chunks of it like the movies.

Image result for asteroid spatial extent of damage

https://www.space.com/40943-nasa-asteroid-defense-plan.html

Comments

  1. You did some good research, and I appreciate you including links to your source articles, but your writing left me confused in places.

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