China is targeting a small near-Earth asteroid for a mission to prepare for future space threats. Photo: doc Spacenews
If you remember, the action is indeed very similar to the film Armageddon (1998). The difference is, in the film directed by Michael Bay, NASA is the star. To be precise, when an asteroid the size of the state of Texas will hit Earth in a month. So, NASA recruited a team to drill into the asteroid’s interior to destroy it.
Well, the Chinese space agency has voted asteroid 2019 VL5 as the mission launch target in 2025.
The asteroid is quite small. It is only 33 meters in diameter and orbits the Sun every 365 days, bringing it close to Earth.
Chen Qi of China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory unveiled the targets of the planetary defense mission during a presentation at the 8th IAA Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna, Austria last week, according to SpaceNews.
China’s planetary defense test is scheduled to launch in 2025. The mission to destroy the asteroid will be benchmarked and scrutinized.
Especially, regarding the ability of the impactor spacecraft tucked into the Long March 3B rocket.
Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, said that after launch each spacecraft will follow a different trajectory. Wu submitted the mission plan to CCTV China in November 2022.
One spacecraft will reach asteroid 2019 VL5 first to survey and study its topography. Meanwhile, the second spacecraft will follow the collision path with the asteroid,” said Wu.
