To prep against a massive asteroid strike, NASA wants India's help

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

Saving humanity from a mega-asteroid strike could be the next big effort in co-operation between USA and India.

The American space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is looking to actively co-operate with India on how best to avert the possibility of humans getting wiped out if a large asteroid were to strike the Earth.

Memories of a big meteorite striking Russia in spectacular fashion on February 15, which injured 1,500 people, are still very fresh.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV's Science Editor Pallava Bagla in Vienna, NASA chief and former astronaut Charles Bolden said the asteroid issue will be high on his agenda when he visits India next week as part of the large delegation being led by Secretary of State John Kerry for the Indo-US strategic dialogue to be held in New Delhi.

Mr Bolden will consult in detail with K Radhakrishnan, the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), about how to develop technology "to move a civilisation-killer out of a collision course" with Earth.

Mr Bolden said "humanity should not go down the route of dinosaurs", which are known to have been wiped out when a giant asteroid struck the Earth. This generated a huge dust column, which blocked out sunshine for a long period, making dinosaurs extinct.

NASA has been mandated by US President Barrack Obama to examine the possibility of landing humans on an asteroid in the next decade and humans on Mars in the next 25 years.

But before undertaking the next human space flight, NASA hopes to polish its skills with full international collaboration on how to nudge a small asteroid that could be on collision course with the Earth.

Mr Bolden says by 2018, it will launch a $2 billion mission to gently nudge a small 500 metric tonne asteroid by "capturing it and redirecting it away from Earth towards the moon."
ISRO has already announced that it wants to launch an unmanned mission to closely study an asteroid soon.

NASA and ISRO co-operated successfully for India's maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1. In 2008, their collaborative efforts led to the first clinching evidence of the presence of water on the moon.

To prep against a massive asteroid strike, NASA wants India's help | NDTV.com

 

[drkrn]

land on an asteroid:shocked:
how come we land on a very fast moving and small objects.

nevertheless this proposal seems naive to me as nasa has extensive resources than indian isro.what is america expecting from isro??
could it be another spy,monitoring programme??

 

[SajeevJino]

Mr Bolden says by 2018, it will launch a $2 billion mission to gently nudge a small 500 metric tonne asteroid by "capturing it and redirecting it away from Earth towards the moon."

ask Russian ..We don't have Capability and Fund to invest such Technology


Russia asks US to prevent space Militarizing but US neglected it and goes for satellite based weapons

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

Like the Russians, Americans now want Indian money to invest in their R&D...

Nothing is like that they want the help of India in designing. Americans already have technology and the reason of Indian involvement is clear, MONEY for R&D......

 

[Virendra]

India should be interested if at least one of the three things happens:
Joint Venture
Technology Transfer
Outsourcing of the work

 

[pmaitra]

How big of a rocket do we need to nudge the 500,000 kg asteroid? Can the PSLV do it? If it can, then it would put India on the limelight again!

 

[TrueSpirit]

India should be interested if at least one of the three things happens:
Joint Venture
Technology Transfer
Outsourcing of the work

& ToT + outsourcing should mean more than simply screw-driver assembly work that happens in India, in the name of licenses production. Should be like what happens with the latest Su-30MKI ToT- fourth phase, starting around 2010 where HAL manufactures most components (if not all) from raw materials.

 

[vram]

How big of a rocket do we need to nudge the 500,000 kg asteroid? Can the PSLV do it? If it can, then it would put India on the limelight again!

Actually blowing an asteroid out of its aligned Orbit is not the real difficulty per se. The actual Challenge here would be to correctly determine the path of an asteroid to the closest metre while its in actual deep space and not near earths orbit at all. Then this orbit path will have to be processed along with other variations to correctly arrive at the needed proximity to earth where the missile impact will have to take place. Also owing to the size of the object to be destroyed or moved the warhead will neccecarily have to be Nuclear rather a thermo-nuclear device with high yield.
The amount of power this nuclear device will have to have will also be determined by the incoming asteroids mass and its chances of surviving a missile hit.
The actual investments here will have to be in the field of deep space tracking and radar installations like the one we have in bulayu for the Chandrayaan missions.
Also earth observatories like the one in LEH will be needed.
I believe that the obersvational,computational and theoritical stuff will be the major requirements for such a project to protect Earth. The actual glamour job of firing a missile in space will only be the last leg.

 

[Payeng]

US barred the Cryogenic technological transfer to India......but yes if they are ready to fund India to develop such capability.

 

[sayareakd]

I think world would want about 10-12 rockets with stand by nukes for these massive asteroids. Real heavy weight rockets.

 

[Abhijeet Dey]

How big of a rocket do we need to nudge the 500,000 kg asteroid? Can the PSLV do it? If it can, then it would put India on the limelight again!

Are you crazy? :shocked: Blowing up one huge asteroid will disintegrate into 3 or 4 more asteroids which will fly into different parts of the world.

Future spacecrafts should be modified so that they can divert (or push) the huge asteroid towards the sun.

 

[Abhijeet Dey]

I wish if all major space agencies such as NASA, ROSKOSMOS, ESA, CNSA and ISRO combine their resources and form a single united space front for future space missions. This will reduce cost. However due to geo-strategic rivalries it is impossible.

 

[pmaitra]

Are you crazy? :shocked: Blowing up one huge asteroid will disintegrate into 3 or 4 more asteroids which will fly into different parts of the world.

Future spacecrafts should be modified so that they can divert (or push) the huge asteroid towards the sun.

Actually blowing an asteroid out of its aligned Orbit is not the real difficulty per se. The actual Challenge here would be to correctly determine the path of an asteroid to the closest metre while its in actual deep space and not near earths orbit at all. Then this orbit path will have to be processed along with other variations to correctly arrive at the needed proximity to earth where the missile impact will have to take place. Also owing to the size of the object to be destroyed or moved the warhead will neccecarily have to be Nuclear rather a thermo-nuclear device with high yield.
The amount of power this nuclear device will have to have will also be determined by the incoming asteroids mass and its chances of surviving a missile hit.
The actual investments here will have to be in the field of deep space tracking and radar installations like the one we have in bulayu for the Chandrayaan missions.
Also earth observatories like the one in LEH will be needed.
I believe that the obersvational,computational and theoritical stuff will be the major requirements for such a project to protect Earth. The actual glamour job of firing a missile in space will only be the last leg.

The word I used is "nudge."

 

[Dovah]

How big of a rocket do we need to nudge the 500,000 kg asteroid? Can the PSLV do it? If it can, then it would put India on the limelight again!

That would depend on how early we detect the asteroid and how fast our rockets can reach there. We'd need a comparatively small one if we can hit the asteroid early in it's trajectory. Who's up for silos on the moon? :biggrin: