Blue Origin's asteroid deflection mission is a real-life Armageddon
Blue Origin just announced the NEO Hunter mission concept, a team-up with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech to help keep Earth safe from hazardous asteroids.
Their plan? Use the Blue Ring spacecraft and CubeSats to identify and characterize potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs), then deflect them using ion-beam or kinetic-impact methods.
How do you nudge a giant space rock?
First, small CubeSats will fly out to check what an asteroid is made of and how heavy it is.
Then, the Blue Ring spacecraft will get close and use an ion beam (basically a gentle space push) to nudge the asteroid off course without even touching it.
If there's a really big or urgent threat, they'll go old-school with a heavy spacecraft for a direct hit (think asteroid bumper car, but serious).
NEO Surveyor will spot potential threats
Backing up this whole mission is the NEO Surveyor—a powerful infrared telescope (launch date not specified in the source article).
It'll keep watch for large asteroids (more than 140 meters) from space (mission duration not specified in the source article), giving us plenty of warning before any risky ones get too close.