China plans to use the Moon as outpost to defend Earth against asteroids

It’s no secret that China has big plans for a “Planetary Defense System” to protect the Earth against celestial threats. But the country has just emboldened its intent for such a system by announcing plans to turn the Moon into an outpost to defend the planet against deadly asteroid strikes. For a long time, the threat of stray asteroids hitting parts of the Earth has been debated and argued over, with the potential damage involving the destruction of entire cities or even an extinction level event.

While thankfully nothing like this has happened in recent human memory, China has decided that the time is right to at least put some mitigating mechanisms into play – with a Moon defense outpost being a touted concept. For the idea to work, two optical telescopes would be constructed and placed at the Moon’s north and south poles, and would work to scan the vast expanse around them to detect any asteroids or celestial objects that might have slipped through the detection network based on the ground. These would include objects coming towards Earth from the blind side facing the Sun.

Then there would also be the deployment of three guardian satellites carrying massive amounts of fuel and armed with an arsenal of kinetic weapons. These satellites would be sent into the Moon’s orbit around the Earth, and be able to intercept threats as soon as they get detected by the surveillance systems either on ground or in space. “It will have the ability to intercept incoming asteroids from all directions, and can form a defense circle about twice the size between the Moon and Earth – about 800,000 kilometers in diameter,” explained chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program Wu Weiren in a Chinese peer-reviewed scientific journal.

These plans only highlight China’s growth as a formidable space power in recent years. Aside from launching space exploration projects alongside the U. S.

, its plans for an Earth Defense System has also appeared mighty impressive. Currently in the development stages, the system is set to consist of giant telescopes and radar systems that will be deployed both on ground and beyond the atmosphere to prevent a catastrophic event – like the massive asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago. While the risk of such an event remains fairly low, it has been estimated that about 60 percent of asteroids large enough to destroy entire nations have not been recorded and tracked by humans.

Additionally, none of the major impact incidents by asteroids on Earth since the 1970’s triggered any alerts until the very moments of impact. According to Wu and his team, most of these asteroids came from the direction of the Sun, with its glare making the use of optical telescopes almost impossible and radar being the best option when it came to tracking such objects. Additionally, the growing number of satellites in orbit – like the Starlink system by Elon Musk’s SpaceX – has also made it harder to identify small celestial objects from long distances.

The system, however, is still quite a ways from being operational, as the country will first have to conduct tests in space by deploying multiple satellites into the Moon’s orbit to see the full extent of their surveillance, tracking, and interception capabilities. However, there are also concerns regarding China’s usage of the satellites for its own personal self-defense interests by pointing these surveillance systems back at Earth. These were all but confirmed by the researchers, who said that the telescopes and sensors could be pointed directly at Earth, with the ability to also monitor “geosynchronous orbit” levels where other communication and military satellites are located.

This could theoretically allow China to keep an eye on the satellite activity of other countries and “improve the ability to protect high-value space assets”. In response, NASA administrator Bill Nelson admitted his concerns earlier in July 2022 that China could possibly take over the moon with its new system, although the Chinese government has since rebutted by saying that all of it was being done to promote a shared future for humanity in space. A liveable city on the moon where babies can be born is now being planned Clever S’pore dude uses his RC car to get groceries & dinner without leaving home Robot chess player grabs and snaps finger of 7-year-old human opponent Instagram boss responds to latest criticisms: ‘It’s not yet good’ Samsung’s Galaxy S22 to launch in an even more purple purple Cover image sourced from China Daily and Popular Science .

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