Deflecting dangerous asteroids

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-led consortium is one of three teams being awarded contracts to design a satellite mission to investigate and defect any asteroid threat to Earth.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Qinetiq €450,000 for the project. Teams led by Alcatel Alenia Space and EADS Astrium are also competing for the Don Quijote project.

The mission involves two spacecraft. First, an orbiter called Sancho will orbit the target asteroid, measuring its position, shape, mass and gravity field over the course of months. Using the captured data, an impactor spacecraft known as Hidalgo will then smash into the asteroid at a relative speed of 36,000kph, changing its course. Sancho will then monitor the deflection.

A particular threat ESA has identified is a 500m diameter asteroid known as 99942 Apophis that weighs 1000 million tonnes and is expected to pass within 30,000km of earth in 2029

Dr Sima Adhya, a space mission and system scientist on the project, said, 'Over the next few months, the next stage will be to come up with the facts and the figures and the technical analysis of what we’re going to do. We will plan the orbit plan the route how to get there, what planets we’re going to go by, when we’re going to arrive, what sort of orbit we’re going to get into around it, design the spacecraft and say what instruments are going to be on them and say what we will actually do if we are chosen to fulfil the mission.'