permit ’s say we detect an asteroid about to hit Earth and for some cause we can’tthrow Bruce Willis at it . ( My trouble - solve strategies generally call for throwing Bruce Willis . ) Well , a swarm of flyspeck spacecraft could also do the Book of Job .
That ’s the finding of Alison Gibbings and Massimiliano Vasile , a pair of aerospace engineers at the UK ’s University of Strathclyde , which has contract to be the most awesomely British placename I ’ve heard all calendar week . Their idea is to send a horde of space vehicle , all close to the size of a pebble , at an oncoming asteroid .
harmonise to New Scientist , 500 kilograms worth of these spacecraft could advertise a 250 - meter encompassing asteroid at least 35,000 kilometers off path , which would be more than enough to remove pretty much any fortune of a collision with Earth . The horde of ballistic capsule could be ferried from Earth to the asteroid in one big projectile . Once there , the cloud could form a sort of cloud - like shape around the asteroid , running off solar magnate and slowly guiding the asteroid off class .
Of course , you might inquire just why this is preferred to the obvious other root , which is just taking that large rocket used to bring the drove there and firing it into the asteroid like a missile . The problem with using a unmarried larger Eruca sativa as an explosive is that this generates small but still venomous asteroid ball , any of which could still be head towards Earth . The only drawback to this architectural plan is that we ’ll involve passel of warning – for the swarm to really be good , they would need to start up work at least eight year before the gauge day of the month of hit .
ViaNew Scientist . prototype by mopic , viaShutterstock./em >
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