After NASA conducts a successful planetary defense test in 2022, China’s space agency plans to launch a spacecraft designed to change the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid by 2030.
In a recent paperThe China National Space Science Center announced that asteroid 2015 XF261 has been selected for the kinetic energy impact deflection test.
The Chinese spacecraft will initially orbit the asteroid for about three to six months, using its four onboard instruments to study its size and composition. The spacecraft will be equipped with four scientific instruments: a spectral and 3D detector, a color camera, a radar, and a dust and particle analyzer.
NASA’s asteroid destruction mission continues to prove that the battering ram option is viable for Earth defense.
After studying the asteroid, the probe will enter the asteroid and act as an impactor or battering ram. After the impact, China will monitor changes in the asteroid’s orbit for six to 12 months.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test was declared a success, the first planetary defense test, as the spacecraft was able to change the orbit of the moon asteroid Dimorphos around the parent asteroid Didymos by about 32 minutes, or 4 percent.
A study published earlier this year estimated that the DART impact ejected about 1% of Dimorphos’ mass into space, and that about 8% of the asteroid’s mass shifted on its rocky body.
The European Space Agency’s HERA spacecraft is due to launch in October to visit Didymos and Dimorphos and study the impact sites in detail. When HERA arrives at the two asteroids in 2026, it should be able to determine how much DART has altered the asteroids’ surfaces.
China aims to launch a planetary defense spacecraft in 2027.