Collision course

The European Space Agency has unveiled details of the advanced engineering needed to meet one of space technology’s ultimate challenges — deflecting an asteroid from a collision course with Earth.

ESA is planning a mission to launch a spacecraft at an asteroid to see for the first time whether it is possible to deflect one from its path.

The Don Quixote mission will involve launching two separate spacecraft on two different trajectories. The first, Hidalgo, will impact the asteroid, while the other, Sancho, will target the asteroid and circle it for several months, observing it before and after impact to detect any changes in orbit.

Sancho will be launched in March 2011, to arrive at the asteroid in 2015. Its systems, which will remain dormant for the journey, would then start up again and it will begin monitoring the asteroid. Later that year Hidalgo will be launched to arrive in June 2017 at a speed of around 10 km/s to crash into the 500m-wide asteroid.