China as a defender of humanity? This is perhaps too bold a thesis, but then again, it’s probably the most illustrative summary of the country’s new initiative. Indeed, a giant radar is being built in one of China’s southern provinces to watch space for dangerous asteroids – but not just any asteroids!
Reports of asteroids flying in close proximity to Earth appear regularly on the web. Luckily, for the time being, such objects avoid our planet, but that does not change the fact that we need to watch them closely.
More and more ideas and solutions are also coming up, which could change the course of an asteroid that would hit the Earth in the future.
Obviously, the key to protecting our planet is early detection of a dangerous object flying towards us. And that’s why China has started building a huge radar that will monitor space up to 150 million kilometers from Earth. This is roughly two-thirds of the average distance from Earth to Mars.
As reported by the Global Times, the Chinese radar set, named China Fuyan, will be made up of more than 20 cooperating antennas, each with a diameter of 25-30 meters.
The giant radar is also to be used to monitor the space between Earth and the Moon, and is already known to help select a landing site for China’s next lunar mission, Tianwen-2, which is scheduled to launch by 2025.
In the final version, China’s space radar will also be able to generate 3D HD models of asteroids and carry out observations of planets in the Solar System, and will be used to monitor the movement of Chinese spacecraft traveling to the Moon.
But it is probably not only theirs, after all, NASA also goes to the Moon, and private spacecraft like Starship are also expected to fly there in the future.
Work on the huge radar has already begun in southwest China, but for now there is no word on when it is scheduled to be completed.
