UK scientists have designed a spacecraft whose purpose is to protect the Earth from invasion by asteroids.
The flying machine named Gravity Tractor toured constantly in the air. It will be sent to space at the risk of an asteroid attack, says The Sunday Telegraph.
According to the U.S. Space administration NASA, 100, 000 asteroids circle around the Earth. Some being the size that could even destroy a while city.
Scientists say it is only a matter of time before some asteroids approach dangerously close to Earth.
The Gravity Tractor works when the asteroids are directed toward the ground. The machine will fly alongside the asteroid and will carry the gravitational force. The goal is that the gravitational tug diverts the threat of Earth.
It will not happen over night as it will take years. The Tractor will be launched 20 years prior to a predicted asteroid attack. It takes so long to distract the asteroid from its path.
Project gravitational tug engineers come from the Astrium design company. They developed the spacecraft for NASA. They claimed that this spacecraft would have problem to conquer an asteroid with a diameter of up to 39 meters.
It is estimated that if such a stone was to fall on Earth, the energy which will be released in the collision will be of 100 times more powerful than that which is released after the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
