Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Has Come Up with a Way to Protect Us from Cosmic Impacts 0 8

Blue Origin, in collaboration with scientists from NASA, has begun developing the NEO Hunter spacecraft. This project envisions a two-stage defense for Earth against potential collisions with dangerous asteroids. If one protective plan fails, the other should definitely solve the problem. At least, such technology was already demonstrated by NASA in 2022, writes Focus.

Currently, Blue Origin is working on the innovative Blue Ring space platform, a prototype of which was launched into orbit last year. This platform will be able to deliver satellites to various orbits around Earth. It is also expected that this platform will be able to transport satellites and cargo to orbits around the Moon and Mars, as well as other planets in the Solar System. Blue Ring can carry up to 4 tons of payload, as it has 13 docking ports.

Now, Blue Origin has decided to use the Blue Ring platform to support the operations of the NEO Hunter spacecraft. Their main task is to protect our planet from potentially dangerous asteroids whose flight paths may intersect with Earth's movement. In simple terms, the NEO Hunter spacecraft will either deflect the asteroid away from our planet or destroy it.

NASA has already successfully tested asteroid orbit alteration technology during the DART mission in 2022, when the spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos.

So far, astronomers have not detected any asteroids that could collide with Earth, but there are millions of undiscovered space rocks in space that could pose a real threat to our planet and humanity.

An asteroid is considered dangerous if its width exceeds 140 meters and it approaches Earth within 7.5 million kilometers. Any such asteroid could cause significant destruction if it were to collide with our planet.

According to Blue Origin's plan, if a dangerous asteroid heading towards Earth is spotted, the NEO Hunter will first release a group of small spacecraft to study the space rock. Understanding the composition, mass, and density of the asteroid will help determine which strategies need to be applied to protect Earth from a collision.

Initially, the NEO Hunter will attempt to change the orbit of the dangerous asteroid using a powerful ion beam. If the asteroid is too large or has too high a velocity, the NEO Hunter will need to switch to the second planetary defense strategy: a kinetic impact, as was done during the DART mission.

The NEO Hunter will need to collide with the asteroid at a speed of 36,370 km/h, thereby altering the trajectory of the space rock. Before the collision, the NEO Hunter will release a smaller spacecraft to capture the impact and confirm the success of the mission.