This year's award for coolest thing ever goes to ... this space canon. Honey Robotics is working with NASA on a gun that will essentially shoot asteroids to test their strength and composition.
The gun is part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM, which aims to bring a massive chip of an asteroid into the moon's orbit so that we can send a manned mission to the boulder and test it in preparation for sending people to Mars.
"NASA has identified multiple candidate asteroids and continues the search for one that could be redirected to near the moon in the 2020s," said NASA in a statement. "... Of those identified so far, four could be good candidates for ARM. Scientists anticipate many more will be discovered over the next few years ..."
Before the team decides on an asteroid to be the subject of retrieval, scientists need to determine that it has a certain level of strength and will be able to hold up in the retrieval process. That's where the gun comes into play. Scientists can fire a projectile at the asteroid, which will determine its rebound speed, with which scientists can figure out just how strong and solid the rock is. Another option for determining whether a boulder is strong enough is by firing a projectile that will only explode when it meets certain requirements. The projectile looks very similar to a paintball.
It will, of course, be a few years before the concept is at all ready for testing, however, it will be very helpful in determining what's required for a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.
Via: Motherboard
