Beijing: China is working on its first mission to impact an asteroid, citing the protection of the Earth. This mission will work with two objectives. One of the mission’s spacecraft will impact the asteroid and the other will investigate the space rock to gather information about the solar system and its formation. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has selected Near Earth Object (NEO) 2015 XF261 for the mission. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 2015 XF261 last came relatively close to Earth on Tuesday this week, it passed within 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) of Earth. The asteroid’s speed was 42,000 kilometers per hour, which is 30 times the speed of sound.
According to a Space.com report, the Planetary Society reported that China has become increasingly interested in planetary defense. On-orbit verification of asteroid defense and the scientific objectives of its specific scientific exploration mission will be designed and proposed. The mission follows in the footsteps of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), an important planetary defense mission. It impacted a small body in the Didymos binary asteroid system in September 2022.
Mission will complete target in about a year
China’s two-spacecraft mission will impact the NEO and observe its target between six months and a year after the collision.The CNSA mission is expected to launch before 2030. The final choice of its NEO target will depend on its launch schedule. 2015 XF261 is scheduled to pass by Earth in March and May 2027. At that time the asteroid will be 20 million miles (32 million km) from Earth and the CNSA will need time to reach it.
The CNSA may get another chance to hit 2015 XF261 in April 2028, when the asteroid will be about 13 million miles (21 million km) away. The best chance for such a mission comes in April 2029, when the asteroid will come within 4.2 million miles (6.8 million km) of Earth. That will be followed in April 2030 when 2015 XF261 will pass about 4.4 million miles (7.1 million km) from Earth. This is not the CNSA’s first asteroid impact mission. In 2023, the Chinese space agency was planning a planetary defense test to launch in 2025 but then postponed it.
