They hold a hope that one day they will be able to save the planet by deflecting Earth-bound asteroids. If humanity aims at destroying harmful asteroids then countries will have to operate unanimously which is going to happen very soon.
NASA and ESA are planning to conduct a meeting in Rome next week to discuss and analyze the progress of Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment, a joint research mission, to figure out the ways how to deflect an asteroid by launching a spacecraft into the surface
This project has planned to deflect the orbit of one of the two Didymos asteroids between Earth and Mars, provided with a craft who would observe the effect of the impact in a more effective manner than those who are at a ground level could ever manage. NASA will be the provider of the collider, the Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART).
It will be launched in summer 2021 and will crash into the two smaller Didymos at about 14,764MPH. LICIACube, the Italian Cubesat has been assigned to study the extent to which the crash will take place.
After this event, the ESA will launch a HERA Probe to attack the main asteroid in October 2024 which will consist of the impact crater, mass and a radar probe (the first-ever for an asteroid). Hera will take two more long years to arrive.
This asteroid pair was chosen by the scientists as it was the easiest one to be tested. The smaller rock is responsible for orbiting very slowly so that its movements can be recorded.
ESA says that this option would not have been considerable if there was a flying solo asteroid in a solar orbit. We can’t deny though that this is way different than an original crisis.
