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[waldron] 18/10/2005 07:48

Doomsday Don Quixote will tilt at asteroids

JEREMY WATSON
[e-mail]


DON Quixote is about to ride again in the service of mankind. A mission into the solar system, named after the famous fictional adventurer, is to crash a spaceship into an asteroid millions of miles from Earth in a Hollywood-style attempt to prove that such a massive body can be deflected off course.

A destructive asteroid heading for the planet is the alarming subject of at least two recent blockbuster films. But the European Space Agency is now planning a £100m mission to create such a Hollywood plot for real.


Space technology companies are being asked to come up with designs for the two Don Quixote craft by the end of the year. One craft, Sancho, the name of the Spaniard's servant, will be launched first to monitor the arrival of Hidalgo, the aristocratic rank which the Don enjoyed.

Hidalgo will then plough into the surface of the asteroid at a speed of 10km a second. The space agency believes the energy caused by the impact will be enough to change the direction of the 500-metre wide asteroid.

Such an asteroid would wipe out an area the size of a large city if, as scientists predict will happen at some time in the future, it were to hit the Earth.

The British space company, EADS Astrium, based in Hertfordshire, has confirmed it will be bidding for the contract.

Andres Galvez, the head of the ESA's Advance Concepts Team, said:

"Don Quixote is all about preparing for a case in which we really will have to take action. We are trying to find out the simplest way of preventing an asteroid from hitting Earth."

Asteroids of varying sizes have previously hit Earth with devastating consequences but, as the global population has grown, the risk to life has been dramatically increased.

Two recent big-budget American disaster movies, Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, and Deep Impact, with Morgan Freeman playing the US president, have focused on attempts to destroy an approaching asteroid and a comet with nuclear bombs planted by astronauts.

In both films, the heroes succeed in saving the planet, but space scientists hope the Don Quixote unmanned missions will render such derring-do unnecessary.

Two asteroids - known as 2002 AT4 and 1989 ML - have been selected as targets for the mission as they will fly into the zone between Earth and Mars, 43 million miles away, after Don Quixote is launched in 2011.

Neither threatens Earth on their current trajectories and mission managers believe that altering their course will present no danger.

Sancho will be sent out first on a journey of at least six months to rendezvous with one of the rocks. It will then go into orbit and deploy probes to examine the asteroid's structure before its sister craft's more dramatic arrival.

Hidalgo will then hurtle in at high-speed and crash straight into the asteroid surface at a predetermined spot. Galvez said: "The thinking is that the spacecraft will form a crater from which considerable quantities of rocky material will be flung out. As a result, the trajectory of the asteroid will be altered.

"We believe this size of spacecraft will result in a deviation of a few hundred metres to a kilometre, which given the distances involved over many years will be enough to knock an asteroid off course from the Earth."

After the explosion, Sancho, which will have retired to a safe distance, will move in closer again. Its role will be to study changes in the asteroid's orbit, rotation and structure caused by Hidalgo's impact.

"This is a hugely exciting mission that is now way beyond paper exercises," said Professor Colin McInnes, head of the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Strathclyde.

"The idea is to use the huge energy produced by the impact to blast enough material off to give the asteroid a push. This is entirely feasible as the kick the asteroid will get is tiny, but if delivered far enough in advance, will make a big difference to its trajectory many years later."

EADS Astrium, the pioneering company which last year launched Inmarsat, the largest commercial satellite ever put into space, plans to produce spacecraft designs by the end of December. ESA experts will then study all the designs put forward and select two. The winner will be chosen in 2007.

EADS Astrium spokesman Jeremy Close said: "We are going to be heavily involved in the bidding as we want to bring our formidable expertise to the project. It's essential that we know more about the composition of asteroids and whether we can deflect them off target."

In Armageddon, a team led by Bruce Willis succeeds in splitting an asteroid in two so it misses Earth. In Deep Impact, although a small comet crashes into the Atlantic, swamping New York under a tidal wave, a larger one that threatens global destruction is shattered by a nuclear explosion.

Such a scenario began to emerge Last December, when the eyes of the world were on the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, scientists spotted a 400-metre-long asteroid, MN4, apparently on a direct collision course with the Earth with impact forecast for 2029. Later calculations found MN4 would not be a danger in that year, but on present trajectories, a future collision cannot be ruled out.

[peter perfect] 17/10/2005 15:58

jellied eels I expect.

[tpaulbeaumont] 17/10/2005 15:51

pie n mash?

[scuba doo] 14/10/2005 22:54

Oi ,mad4IT .... are you coming out or do I have to come in there and winkle you out ?

[scuba doo] 14/10/2005 22:47

mad4IT - 14 Oct'05 - 22:34 - 172 of 172

Come on , get your bl00dy dukes up , I'm gonna have you tonight , mad4IT !

[ariane] 14/10/2005 09:45

ALCATEL (ISIN : FR0000130007)
MEP Mnemo Lokale markt
PAR CGE Eurolist by Euronext
AMS CGEA Eurolist by Euronext
BRU CGEB Eurolist by Euronext



(Euronext Paris) - Alcatel Alenia Space-built Syracuse 3A military communications satellite ready for launch
(13/10/05 12:18 CET)

Alcatel Alenia Space is European leader in defense and security space systems

Paris, October 13, 2005 - The next generation military communications satellite Syracuse 3A will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket during the night of October 13th to 14th, 2005 from the Guyana Space Center, in Kourou. This satellite was built by Alcatel Alenia Space, for French defense procurement agency DGA.

With Syracuse 3A operational in the coming months, France will be the first country in Europe to deploy a new generation of military telecom satellites.

The Syracuse 3A satellite uses Alcatel Space's commercial satellite platform, Spacebus, which has been hardened to resist nuclear attack. The payload features the latest technological developments in both the SHF (super high frequency) and EHF (extremely high frequency) bands. This new-generation system guarantees significantly enhanced service in terms of data throughput and resistance to countermeasures. It is the third new generation telecommunication satellite Spacebus 4000 to be launched since the beginning of the year, AMC-12 and Apstar VI are perfectly operational in orbit.

Alcatel Alenia Space chairman and CEO Pascale Sourisse, notes : "We did everything in our power to meet this major challenge, and this next generation satellite features state-of-the-art technologies to meet the requirements of today's armed forces. The second next generation satellite Syracuse 3B is currently in final integration in the clean room of Alcatel Alenia Space, confirming our European leadership position in defense and security space systems."

Alcatel Alenia Space integrated the requirements of European countries and NATO right from the outset. Syracuse III perfectly matches space-based military telecom needs in France and its allies for the coming decade. NATO's C3 agency recently chose the Syracuse system, together with Skynet (Britain) and Sicral (Italy), to provide SHF (super high frequency) communications for member countries, within the scope of the post-2000 NATO Satcom program.

Alcatel Alenia Space is a leader in the military satellite communications sector, with strong positions in both satellites and ground systems. Alcatel Alenia Space is also active in the civil-military satellite export market, through Koreasat 5 in South Korea and Star One in Brazil.

A press kit is available at following link:

About Alcatel Alenia Space
Alcatel Alenia Space, leader in satellite systems and at the forefront of orbit infrastructures, brings together the vast experience and know-how of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio to form a new leading force in European space technology. Alcatel Alenia Space represents a worldwide standard for space development that impacts everybody's future: from navigation to telecommunications, from meteorology to environmental monitoring, from defence to science and observation. An affiliate of Alcatel (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%), Alcatel Alenia Space generated an estimated turnover of 1.8 billion euros with around 7,200 people in 2004.

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks; applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.3 billion and 56,000 employees in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet:

Press Contacts Alcatel
Aurélie Boutin / HQ Tel :+ 33 (0)1 40 76 11 79 [e-mail]
Florence Pontieux / HQ Tel :+ 33 (0)1 40 76 12 02 [e-mail]
Sandrine Bielecki / Alcatel Alenia Space Tel : [phone] [e-mail]
Francesca Sette / Alcatel Alenia Space Tel : [phone] [e-mail]

Alcatel Investor Relations
Pascal Bantegnie Tel : [phone] [e-mail]
Nicolas Leyssieux Tel : [phone] [e-mail]
Maria Alcon Tel : [phone] [e-mail]
Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane Tel : [phone] [e-mail]


Bron : Alcatel

[mike crowsoft] 12/10/2005 17:17

good evening mad.

Will you be in any pantos this xmas ?

[scuba doo] 11/10/2005 18:00

LOL! (real one)


Classic 'baiting talk' there mr Crowsoft .

[mike crowsoft] 11/10/2005 17:53

I'd be surprised if the little weasel dares show his name on a public free bb again.

[scuba doo] 11/10/2005 14:02

Afternoon Mad .

[peter perfect] 07/10/2005 15:45

I dunno.

Some bl00dy name droppers, eh ?

[peter perfect] 07/10/2005 15:43

Scuba, further to our discourse yesterday, I think you'll find it's Helen. Debbie's the twin sister.

[shirishg] 06/10/2005 16:23

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[mkearns] 06/10/2005 16:21

No I'm not.

[scuba doo] 06/10/2005 16:19

MK -

You're thinking of Jedi , not only do they post alike but they bl00dy look/dress alike .

[mkearns] 06/10/2005 16:15

Rabbit, you still got that black jumper?

[shirishg] 06/10/2005 16:10

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[scuba doo] 06/10/2005 16:06

It's a shame you know Mikey Boy , I was just starting to warm to the idea .

Still , you always did say he was all rhubarb and no crumble .

[mike crowsoft] 06/10/2005 16:05

You'll have to take over the innings Scube.

I leave you with us 297-0, with mad coming in from the Kerkstall Lane end.

[mike crowsoft] 06/10/2005 16:03

Of course he won't.

madness lives in an imaginary world, where he is the best trader ever seen, knows more celebs than anyone, is harder than Mike Tyson in his heyday, and uses Roger Federer as a warm up man.

Apart from that, he's entirely plausible.

[mike crowsoft] 06/10/2005 16:00

I think mad's preparing his next long-winded retort: