Space tractor to nudge unwanted asteroids off-course

It appears, thankfully, that we won’t be in need of Bruce Willis to save the day in an Armageddon-type scenario, NASA has unveiled plans for a “space tractor” that’ll use gravity to send asteroids on their way.

Researchers at their jet propulsion unit have found the weak gravitational pull of a nearby aircraft can send wayward space obstructions of sizes up to 140 metres across off course.

Asteroids may pass through a narrow “keyhole” in space before returning on a future orbit to hit Earth, if it misses the keyhole, which may be only a few hundred metres across it’ll go on to miss Earth.

“The gravity tractor is a wimp, but it’s a precise wimp,” says Rusty Schweickart, a former Apollo astronaut, “It can make very small, precise changes in orbit, and that’s what you need to avoid a keyhole.”

Right now, there’s an asteroid by the name of Apophis out there which could potentially pass through this narrow keyhole in 2029 and lead to an impact with Earth just seven years later.

So we can sleep easy for a few nights and stare at the stars in romantic, rather than panicked, fashion for a couple of decades whilst the boffins do their bit to get a tractor up in orbit.

TBC | £TBC | NASA (Via New Scientist)

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