Back in April, China announced the creation of a system to protect the Earth from asteroids, and now Chinese scientists are proposing to include extraterrestrial elements in it. Wu Weiren, head of China's lunar exploration program, said the new plan would place three kinetic weapon-wielding guardian satellites in orbit around the moon.
Two optical telescopes will be built at the south and north poles of the moon to scan outer space for any threats that might elude the ground-based early warning network. This is especially true in the case of threats approaching from the Sun.
According to the plan, when the system detects a potentially dangerous asteroid, it will send one or all of the guardian satellites to intercept it. According to scientists, such a system would respond a week faster than any rockets launched from Earth.
“Such a system would have the ability to intercept incoming asteroids from all directions, and it would be able to form a protective circle about twice the distance between the Moon and the Earth - about 800,000 km in diameter,” the Chinese scientists noted.
And although nothing directly threatens the Earth right now, according to astrophysicists, about 60% of asteroids large enough to cause serious damage to the planet are not registered or tracked by people. According to Wu and his team, asteroids that come from the direction of the Sun are the most dangerous because they are very difficult to track. Solar glare has made it nearly impossible for optical telescopes to detect such objects, and radar systems work best when tracking known targets.
The growing number of satellites in orbit, such as Starlink, further reduces the likelihood of detecting small celestial objects in the distance, according to Chinese scientists. According to Wu and his colleagues, these problems could be solved with the help of telescopes operating in the polar regions of the moon. Scientists have calculated that the viewing angles of lunar telescopes almost perfectly cover the entire blind spot on Earth.
The construction of lunar objects of the Earth protection system would cost a lot of money and resources, so China may invite other countries to cooperate in the framework of the International Lunar Research Station, a joint project between Beijing and Moscow.
But before starting work on the moon, China will first launch satellites into lunar orbit to test the latest surveillance, tracking and interception technologies.
However, the researchers point out that lunar satellites can help protect China's national security to Earth. So, with their help, China will be able to closely monitor the satellites of other countries and, thereby, "increase the ability to protect valuable space assets." The scientists also added that the ultra-precise atomic clocks on these new satellites could improve the accuracy of the BeiDou satellite positioning system.
bbabo.Net