In 2022 Nasa diverted a 500+ foot asteroid. The ongoing program DART is going to do a bigger asteroid in 2026.
They say it worked FAR better than they expected. Blowing up an asteroid isn't necessary. A tiny nudge a million miles away, will divert the asteroid enough to alter its course by tens of thousands of miles over time.
Just sending a tiny satellite into the 500+ foot asteroid has altered its course by 600,000 miles in less than a year.
APPARENTLY a small satellite sent into the side of a 6 mile wide planet killer would divert it out of earth's trajectory for 100 million years.
BUT, like I mentioned before, there is a huge blind spot that we cannot see. There could be a 20 mile wide asteroid 12 hours from a direct hit with earth right now.
In the direction of the sun, we are completely blind.
China is about to send a few satellites this year to solve this issue.
Its pretty telling that space debris is the ONE thing that brings the planet together. China is actually working with NASA to complete this mission.
I suppose that if the planet is destroyed, China cannot take over the world. So they will work with us on this.
