China: "Why Does Only the US Save the Earth? We Do It Too!" [Reading Science]

China's National Astronomical Observatories Announces Plan on 24th to Conduct Near-Earth Asteroid Trajectory Change Experiment Around 2025-6
Similar to US 'DART' Project Launched in November Last Year

Stock photo. Not related to the article. [Photo by NASA]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The Chinese sci-fi film The Wandering Earth causes a small stir in our "cinematic common sense." In movies, it was always white people who spoke English, namely Americans, who saved the Earth. However, in this film, Asians wear spacesuits and speak Chinese as they save the Earth from the brink of destruction. When the film was released in 2019, it was praised as a work that imagined China's "space rise." Now, China has attracted attention by announcing plans to carry out an Earth defense project to destroy an asteroid heading toward Earth and change its trajectory. This is the same experiment as the U.S. "DART" project launched in November last year.

According to space news outlet SpaceNews on the 25th, Wu Yanhua, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), introduced this plan during a speech at China's "National Space Day" event held on the 24th in Wenchang, Hainan Province. Deputy Director Wu stated that CNSA is drafting a planetary defense plan similar to that of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and is conducting system development and technical research to respond to threats from near-Earth asteroids. CNSA also plans to build an early warning system capable of detecting asteroid approaches in advance, as well as develop software to simulate response operations and test and verify basic procedures. In particular, they are researching technologies and means to closely monitor asteroids judged to pose a collision risk with Earth and to alter their orbits by colliding spacecraft with them.

Deputy Director Wu said, "We plan to complete this research and development plan between 2025 and 2026," adding, "The systems developed through this will help handle near-Earth objects that threaten humanity and will also allow China to make new contributions in the future." Earlier, CNSA announced in its "White Paper on Space Development" released in January that it plans to establish a near-Earth object defense system and promote surveillance, early warning, cataloging, and enhanced response capabilities. In October last year, CNSA also held its first academic conference dedicated to "Earth defense." Additionally, before 2025, China plans to conduct asteroid sample collection and comet collision experiments to accumulate prior knowledge. China will send a satellite to Kamo'oalewa, presumed to be a quasi-satellite of Earth, to collect samples and then collide the satellite with the comet PanSTAARS to test whether its trajectory changes.

Meanwhile, the United States launched a spacecraft last November for a project called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The DART spacecraft is scheduled to collide with the asteroid Didymos around September this year to conduct an experiment to change its trajectory. The European Space Agency (ESA) is also participating. Ten years later, an observation satellite (the Hera mission) will be sent to confirm what changes have occurred to the asteroid and its moon as a result of the DART spacecraft's collision.