China plans to hit an asteroid with a Mach 26 projectile in planet defence test

AI Summary

China is planning an advanced planetary defence mission to hit an asteroid with a Mach 26 projectile before 2030. The goal is to directly alter or break up the asteroid's orbit relative to Earth, surpassing previous tests such as NASA’s Dart.

China’s first planetary defence mission appears to be far more ambitious than Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart), according to a new paper outlining its plan to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid before 2030. Unlike Dart, a proof-of-concept that nudged one asteroid’s orbit around another, China is aiming for a more realistic planetary-defence test. It aims to directly alter an asteroid’s orbit relative to Earth, “or even break up its structure”, according to a team led by Li Mingtao,...