A model of the Long March-5 Y5 rocket from China's lunar exploration program Chang'e-5 Mission is displayed at an exhibition inside the Nati

Chinese researchers propose deflecting 'Armageddon' asteroids with rockets

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2021-07-07 08:00:07

A model of the Long March-5 Y5 rocket from China's lunar exploration program Chang'e-5 Mission is displayed at an exhibition inside the National Museum in Beijing, China March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - Chinese researchers want to send more than 20 of China's largest rockets to practice turning away a sizable asteroid - a technique that may eventually be crucial if a killer rock is on a collision course with Earth.

The idea is more than science fiction. Sometime between late 2021 to early 2022, the United States will launch a robotic spacecraft to intercept two asteroids relatively close to Earth.

When it arrives a year later, the NASA spacecraft will crash-land on the smaller of the two rocky bodies to see how much the asteroid's trajectory changes. It will be humanity's first try at changing the course of a celestial body.

At China's National Space Science Center, researchers found in simulations that 23 Long March 5 rockets hitting simultaneously could deflect a large asteroid from its original path by a distance 1.4 times the Earth's radius.

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