China's national space agency, CNSA, plans to target the asteroid 2020 PN1 which has the potential to threaten Earth. In a mission to be launched in 2026, China seems to be aiming for 2025 to try out an antidote to the asteroid like the movie Armageddon.
This was conveyed by Long Lehao, chief designer of China's Long March rocket series. Long's report suggests that the impact mission will be launched in 2026 on a Long March 3B rocket.
"This mission will include a separate impactor and orbiter. The former will impact near-Earth object 2020 PN1 with the spacecraft being the last to make observations," he said as quoted from Space.com, Tuesday (19/7/2022).
The kinetic asteroid defense mission appears to be similar to America's 'Armageddon mission', NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will arrive at its destination sometime in September this year.
NASA plans to send a kinetic impactor to the Moon Dimorphos at a speed of 6.6 km/s to try to change its orbit around the asteroid Didymos.
Not to worry, so far there is no threatening danger based on careful observations by NASA and many other space entities.
The term 'potentially hazardous' is also very complex, as it describes a characteristic set of space rocks that are predicted to have a higher probability of impact on Earth.
CNSA deputy director Wu Yanhua said China is working on a broader planetary defense plan that involves various research and technical studies. The CNSA also released a 'white paper' in January discussing plans to build a near-Earth object defense system.
China is a largely independent country in space and has come under fire from the US in recent times. NASA has criticized China for allowing 23-tonne rocket debris from its 2021-launched Long March 5B booster to fall out of control.
NASA also said it was not allowed to engage in any bilateral activities with China or Chinese-owned companies. It didn't stop there, NASA criticized China for being so ambitious in wanting to control the Moon, although this accusation was immediately denied by China.