Nasa’s plan to save the Earth from asteroid strikes by sending a robot spaceship to land on a comet and bring a boulder back to the MOON
The project is hoped to be first launched in 2021 with engineers already creating mock asteroids to test their prototype
A PLAN to save earth from the threat of a giant asteroid is being tested by NASA - and could be ready in just five years.
The project aims to alter the potentially catastrophic path of a boulder, redirecting the asteroid towards the moon should it come too close to earth.
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) also aims at taking materials off the asteroid for future research, NASA has revealed.
The giant ARM is made up of three space frame legs with foot pads and two seven degrees of freedom arms that have with microspine gripper “hands” to grasp onto the boulder.
The technology, currently in prototype form, could also be used for future explorations in space.
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In a statement, NASA said the prototype was now being tested with a "mock asteroid boulder".
Made of rock, styrofoam, plywood and an aluminum endoskeleton, the asteroid arrived in four pieces before being assembled inside the centre's Robotic Operations Center in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The robotic form of ARM is hoped to be launched in 2021.
NASA, which was joined by students from West Virginia University, created the prototype to help visualise how the system would work and capture an asteroid.
NASA said: "Engineers can use industrial robots, a motion-based platform, and customized algorithms to create simulations of space operations for robotic spacecraft.
"The ROC also allows engineers to simulate robotic satellite servicing operations, fine tuning systems and controllers and optimizing performance factors for future missions when a robotic spacecraft might be deployed to repair or refuel a satellite in orbit."
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