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A team of scientists is developing technology to help avoid a nightmare, in the form of a high-precision timer: a precipitating asteroid streaks the Earth’s surface, endangering humanity. AFP.
This is purely a precaution, but some may say that there is always a danger.
Related: What is the potential for a major asteroid impact that puts an end to civilization?
Scientists build tools to help Earth overcome asteroids
The new timers, which already tracked satellites, were designed by hand in the laboratory of Latvian start-up Eventek.
This year Event Tech won a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop timers that can study the possibility of an oncoming asteroid being redirected.
Similarly, the first phase of NASA’s Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission – also known as the Dual Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – will be launched by SpaceX on July 22, 2021 on one of Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rockets.
Event timer to follow NASA’s crash mission
Equipped with a camera weighing 1,100 bs (500 kilograms), the spacecraft will travel to the asteroid Didymus and crash into it, trying to change the current trajectory that could be seen approaching our tiny blue planet in 2123., Phys. org Reports.
Five years after NASA’s cosmic collision, Ivantek’s deep space event timers are still being developed for the follow-up to his mission to see if it works.
Engineers want to move the boundaries of space, not profit margins
“Our new technology, followed by ESA’s second spacecraft, Hera, will measure whether the kilometer-sized Didimos was removed from its predecessor while avoiding human damage,” said Imantz Pulkstenis, technical engineer at the event. AFP.
“It’s more fun to go to a place where no one will be brave than to build low-cost consumer electronics for big profits,” said Pulkstenis, referring to a low-key science fiction television series from the 1960s Star Trek.
EventK’s devices take picosecond measurements
Ivantech timers connect the Baltic state with a great legacy of space technology – one that dates back to the Soviet era, when Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit, was launched in 1957.
Timers measure the time it takes for light to travel to and behind an orbiting object.
Notably, Ivantech’s instruments can measure up to one picosecond – about a third of a second – allowing astronomers to convert time measurements into distances with an accuracy of up to two millimeters (0.078 inches).
Engineers who have been tracking satellites since the Soviet era
Around 10 timers are developed each year and are used in observatories around the planet. In general, they observe Earth’s fast-paced atmosphere, where more and more private satellites enter Earth’s lower orbit each year, closer to the flight paths of scientific and military satellites.
“Equipment is needed to track them all,” said Pavels Rasmajas, Ivantech’s chief operating officer. Latvia only joined ESA as a full member in 2016, and its engineers have been monitoring satellites since Soviet times.
The University of Latvia has its own satellite laser beam station, located in the southern Riga forest.
Provides GPS on other planets
Eventtech’s collection of engineers said that microchips take nanoseconds to accurately determine a signal and attempt to use analog parts wherever possible, a scale that is longer than incoming picosecond measurements.
Only the physical length of the motherboard can negatively affect the speed at which the signal can travel from one circuit to another.
Although these timers have already been used for Earth calculations, another tool for deep space missions is being developed in the Event Lab – to detect planetary objects from dynamic space probes.
“GPS data coverage is not available on other planets, so you have to take your accuracy,” Pulkstenis said. In an effort to provide the internet (for everything) to future astronauts, the technology could be applied to Elon Musk’s open space to build a satellite network in orbit around Mars.
Satellite support systems can also move asteroids
While developing devices like this for deep space isn’t easy, one of Ivantech’s engineers appeals to the idea. “Our upgraded technology faces extreme temperatures and extreme cosmic radiation in space,” Pulkstenis said. “This is an interesting challenge.”
Fortunately, known asteroid-sized asteroids have absolute orbits, of which the largest asteroids fly in and out of the inner solar system. But I would also like to know how some of the technologies we use to track satellites designed for the convenience of work, such as the Internet and GPS trackers, can become an important part of avoiding the horrible and sudden end of life as we know it. .
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