Nasa has announced plans to develop a nuclear-armed satellite capable of saving the world from massive rogue asteroids like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
The spacecraft, referred to as the Hammer (Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response), is kitted out with a nuclear warhead to blow up asteroids that might pose a threat to human existence.
If the event of an asteroid being spotted heading towards Earth, Nasa, in partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), plan to employ one of two tactics to prevent an impact, Futurism reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
For smaller space rocks, the Hammer will use an 8.8-tonne “impactor” to deflect the object, says the science and tech website. Asteroids that are too big to nudge off course will be destroyed using the satellite’s nuclear bomb.
According to Tech Times, the US space agency decided to begin development of the probe in case the village-sized Bennu asteroid, which was discovered in 1999, starts on a collision course with Earth.
Although there is only a one in 2,700 chance of it entering our atmosphere, in 2135, Nasa wants to have a plan in place in the event of an emergency.
Scientists warn there are “countless” undetected objects in space that could threaten life on Earth, the Daily Mail reports.
Researchers from Nasa and the NNSA will present their research on project Hammer at the Catastrophic Disruption in the Solar System workshop in Kobe, Japan, in May.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
Should you fire your financial adviser? 4 signs it's time to say goodbye.The Explainer Breakups are never fun, but you have to protect your wallet
-
The daily gossip: Man arrested in connection with shooting of Tupac Shakur, an OceanGate movie is in the works, and more
Feature The daily gossip: September 29, 2023
-
What to expect from an El Niño winter
The Explainer Things might be different thanks to this well-known weather phenomenon
-
Dark side of the Moon: will the race to lunar South Pole spark conflict?
Today's Big Question Russia and India are competing for the ‘new lunar gold’ – but real contest will be between the US and China
-
How worried we should be about space debris
feature As part of a rocket washes up in Australia scientists warn ‘critical mass’ of orbital junk could only be decades away
-
What is NASA's Artemis program?
Speed Read NASA's ambitious Artemis program will eventually create a base on the moon — and lay the foundations for manned missions to Mars
-
SpaceX launches 1st all-civilian crew into orbit
Speed Read
-
Is SpaceX's Inspiration4 really an inspiration?
Talking Point
-
Jeff Bezos' Promethean impulse
Talking Point
-
The benefits of billionaires in space
opinion This is how innovation begins
-
How cybercriminals are hacking into the heart of the US economy
Speed Read Ransomware attacks have become a global epidemic, with more than $18.6bn paid in ransoms in 2020
