ESA plans to blow up asteroid heading towards earth

The aim is to assess whether it would be possible to save Earth using this method,should we discover that an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet.

Don Quixote will involve sending two spacecraft towards a near-Earth asteroid.

One will be an impactor, which is fired into the asteroid,the other an orbitor that will analyse data from the experiment.

One potential target is a 1600 ft-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis,which experts say does have a minute chance around one in 250,000 8212; of hitting Earth in 2036,so it would be useful target practice.

The 500 kilogram impact craft,which will be called Hidalgo,will ram into the asteroid at a speed of around six miles a second.

The orbitor,Sancho,will scan the collision and monitor whether the asteroid changes direction at all.

There will be a lot of fingers crossed in mission control,as a big asteroid impact could wipe out life on Earth.

This is the big step. This is out into the universe,away from Earth8221;s gravity completely8230; This is really where you are doing the Star Trek kind of thing, the Daily Mail quoted Kent Joosten,chief architect of the human exploration team at Johnson Space Center,as saying.