Beijing (Monitoring Desk): China has begun preparations for a major space mission aimed at protecting Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids. Under the plan, a spacecraft will be intentionally crashed into an asteroid before 2030 to demonstrate its ability to alter the asteroid’s trajectory.
According to Chinese scientists, the mission is not intended merely as an experimental collision but also to develop the capability to change an asteroid’s orbit or structure if necessary, helping protect Earth from future threats.
The project is being developed under the supervision of Li Mingtao, Chief Scientist for Planetary Defense at the China National Space Administration. A research paper describing the mission is currently under review in the Chinese scientific journal Journal of Deep Space Exploration.
According to the study, the spacecraft will collide with the asteroid at a speed exceeding 9 kilometers per second, approximately 26 times the speed of sound. The impact is expected to occur in 2029 or 2030, when the asteroid passes about 7 million kilometers from Earth.
The mission also includes a second spacecraft that will observe the asteroid before, during, and after the collision, collecting detailed data on changes to its orbit, shape, surface, and internal structure.
Chinese researchers said the project goes a step beyond NASA’s DART mission because its objective is not only to strike an asteroid but also to test, in practice, the ability to make a meaningful change to its trajectory relative to Earth.