China wants to launch asteroid-deflecting rockets

[+Desertrat56]

https://www.space.com/china-rocket-fleet-divert-asteroid-bennu

Chinese scientists are planning to fire more than 20 rockets into space to divert an asteroid impact that has a small chance of one day ending life on Earth.

 

Their target is an asteroid named Bennu, a 85.5-million-ton (77.5 million metric ton) space rock that is on track to swoop within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit between 2175 and 2199. Although Bennu's chances of striking Earth are slim — at just 1 in 2,700 — the asteroid is as wide as the Empire State Building is tall, meaning that any collision with the Earth would be cataclysmic.

 

The estimated kinetic energy of Bennu's impact with Earth is 1,200 megatons, which is roughly 80,000 times greater than the energy of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. For comparison, the space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs delivered about 100 million megatons of energy, Live Science previously reported.

Related: The 7 strangest asteroids: Weird space rocks in our solar system 

Scientists at China's National Space Science Center calculated that 23 Long March 5 rockets, each weighing 992 tons (900 metric tons), pushing against the rock simultaneously would be necessary to divert the asteroid away from a fatal course by nearly 6,000 miles (9,000 km) — 1.4 times the Earth's radius. Their calculations are detailed in a new study published in the forthcoming Nov. 1 issue of the journal Icarus.

[+OverSword]

They'll probably accidentally make it more likely to hit us.   

Actually this sounds like a good idea to see how it goes for future rocks that actually are a danger.

Of course the other possibility is this will make Ming the Merciless aware of our existence and potential threat to him guaranteeing our annihilation

Edited July 13, 2021 by OverSword

[+Desertrat56]

5 minutes ago, OverSword said:

They'll probably accidentally make it more likely to hit us.   

Actually this sounds like a good idea to see how it goes for future rocks that actually are a danger.

Of course the other possibility is this will make Ming the Merciless aware of our existence and potential threat to him guaranteeing our inhalation. 

Inhalation?  they are going to breathe us in?  

[+and-then]

Wait, wasn't it the Long March vehicle body that recently had people wondering whose head it would land on?  As for their mission, Godspeed to it.  I'm glad SOMEONE is taking the threat seriously.