China pushes ahead with plans to build a space defense system

Beijing is looking to build a system capable of effectively monitoring asteroids and changing their course to protect Earth from potential impacts.

According to RT television, the deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Wu Yanhua, on April 24 revealed that Beijing plans to test an asteroid in 2025.

Asteroids have always been a threat in space to Earth.

On the occasion of China's Space Day, Mr. Wu said China will establish a near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defense system that is also capable of protecting spacecraft.

The system, which has components on the ground and in space, will list and analyze asteroids to determine which asteroids pose a potential threat to Earth or humanity. In particular, the system will install computer simulation software to model the potential impacts of the asteroid.

According to the Global Times, the project is still waiting for approval from Chinese authorities. The approval process requires the coordination of many departments.

China is not the only country concerned about the asteroid threat. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also developing a similar project. In November 2021, the US Space Agency launched a probe to strike a small asteroid with the aim of testing whether it is possible to change the asteroid's direction through impact. could be an effective defense to the Earth against such a threat.

The DART probe mounted on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will strike a small asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid, changing its speed. The entire process will be observed and measured from Earth. It is expected that the probe will complete its goal after 10 months of launch.

In a statement in October 2021, NASA said that in the next 100 years, there will not be any asteroid capable of causing serious damage that is likely to collide with Earth. However, the agency also added that only 40% of asteroids have been discovered in space.

A meteorite fell and caused an explosion in the city of Chelyabinsk (Russia) in 2013. Although the object burned up in the atmosphere and only small pieces of debris fell to Earth, the explosion was more than 1,600 people were injured, of which dozens were hospitalized.