Do You Have Any Idea to Move An Asteroid?

Every day, thousands of astronomers around the world looking for new asteroids and comets. Some of these celestial bodies, whether large or small potentially hit the Earth sometime in the future. Fortunately, an asteroid with a diameter of up to a kilometer or more, which is large enough to cause mass extinctions, are rarely found.

But the asteroid at 10 to 100 meters is enough to destroy a city. Sized heavenly bodies struck the earth almost 100 years. Tunguska event in Siberia, which occurred 104 years ago, is a testament to the enormity of the explosion of a comet when it hit the earth.

An artist's illustration of asteroids, or near-Earth objects. (Picture from: http://www.space.com/)

With the most advanced technology, scientists are able to know the dangers that lurk earth since long ago. They were also able to identify the threat of objects much smaller and have enough time to launch a mission and spread the warning.

Meteor Crater in Arizona have 1.2 kilometers of diameter and 200 meters deep. It formed approximately 49,000 years ago when an iron meteorite that was roughly the size of a school bus struck the Arizona desert. (Picture from: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/)

With this competition, the Space Generation Advisory Council in support of United Nations was challenged students and young professionals from around the world contribute original ideas in the face of near-Earth objects (NEO) that threaten Earth. Where the competition participants must be aged under 35 years.

The purpose of competition that has been going on for the fifth time this is to describe the innovative ideas that relate to one or all of these targets, namely to safely deflect NEO, NEO detection, or creating a global warning system for NEO collisions. The idea in the show is very diverse.

For example, with using of solar screens May D'Souza, the winner of the competition in 2008. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia that offers the concept of solar screens to coat the surface of the asteroid. This increase its reflectivity that allowing solar radiation pressure deflecting asteroid.

Then the winners of the competition in 2009, Here Merikallio from Finnish Meteorological Institute, proposed the use of solar power wind screen (E-sail) to deflect the asteroid. In a period of several months to years, a small boost from the E-sail can change the direction of the asteroid safely. 

Meanwhile, the winner of the competition in 2010, Ben Corbin is Ph.D. student in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics program at MIT. He proposed a number of strategies for dealing with the global nature of near-Earth object (NEO) impacts, reducing the uncertainty of a potential impact is for making life-saving, cost-effective decisions without causing panic among the general public. Making better and precision tool to find and tracking NEOs. Then increasing the accuracy of tracking NEOs can be accomplished with better models of small body perturbation forces.

The winner of the competition in 2011, taking an approach to smart cloud in deflecting asteroid's trajectory. Alison Gibbings, researchers at the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, says that clouds are made up of many nanoparticle-sized spacecraft was launched at high speed toward the asteroid.

When it collides with the asteroid, the cloud is very intelligent effectively creating an artificial friction and thrust of the asteroid," Gibbings said in her proposal. "This technique also prevents other catastrophic asteroid fragments resulting from the collision rocket or large vehicle."

While the winners of this competition in 2012, Sung Wook Paek, a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Paek said that asteroids are covered with white paint will reflect the sunlight and slowly photons that bounce off the surface of the stone will create enough power to push the asteroid off course trajectory slightly.

The paint bullets can be expressed in two rounds, from a spacecraft which flying in close range to the asteroid. Cover the entire surface of the asteroid with the paint is very important because it can double the reflectivity or albedo-fraction of electromagnetic radiation refracted by the surface of a space object. Apart from its beginning when the bullet hit the asteroid, photons from sunlight would further shift the asteroid off course.

Furthermore according to Paek, paint bullets can be made directly in space, such as on the deck of the International Space Station (ISS). Once the bullet is made, the other rides to raise some bullets and dropped it into the asteroid. Paek added that the paint substance can be replaced with aerosol. "But by painting the asteroids, you can trace it from a telescope on earth with ease," he said.

Lindley Johnson, Manager of Near Earth Object Observations Program-NASA assess the Paek's proposal is an innovative variation of the method of utilization of solar radiation pressure. "It's important we develop and test a deflection technique is that we know that we have qualified equipment ready to be implemented when we found out there asteroid on the collision track with the earth," said Johnson.

Next year, what an idea that appears to move the asteroid from its collision course with the earth. *** [SPACE GENERATION ADVISORY COUNCIL | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4050]
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