Hong Kong – China is recruiting for a planetary defense force to combat the threat of asteroids that collide with the earth.
Successful candidates must investigate tasks related to the monitoring of asteroids close to the land and early alert systems, according to the description of the work of the three positions, between 16 Published last week by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (Sastinda), which supervises the country’s spatial activities.
Applicants must be under 35 years old and “maintain a firm political position” in line with the ruler Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, he said.
They are also required that they have experience in astrophysics, land exploration technology, astronomy, optical engineering or aerospace science and technology, with a mastery or superior.
Sastint did not respond immediately to a request for fax of comments on Tuesday.
Work publications occur after the discovery of December 27, 2024 years 4, an asteroid that measures up to 300 feet that crosses the orbit of the earth approximately every four years.
Last week, NASA said there was a 2.3% chance that the asteroid would collide with the Earth in 2032, compared to 1.2% at the end of January.
“It is a small opportunity, but it is not yet insignificant, that it can collide with the earth, and if you do, then you could create a lot of damage,” said Quentin Parker, director of the Space Research Laboratory at the University. of Hong Kong.
But 2032 is far enough, he said, that the Chinese and the like in the United States and other countries can work together to prevent that from happening.
While the word “strength” can suggest military connotations such as the United States spatial force, Parker said that what China is establishing is more a team to detect planetary threats and do something about it, “including looking at international cooperation, than It is something that, that, in my experience, at least the Chinese really like to try to do. ”
Ads have been an important issue of online discussion among young people in China, which are dealing with high unemployment.
“The threat of asteroids has created three new job opportunities,” joked a commentator on the Chinese Weibo social media platform.
Users of social networks also said that the three recruits would be under a lot of pressure, trying to save their world on their own.
But Parker said they could soon have more company.
“What happens with China is that you can dedicate resources, significant resources, to some of this nature,” said Parker. “You start with a 16 team, and in five years it could be a team of 100”.
The planetary defense force is part of a solid Chinese space program that includes a space station, missions on the other side of the moon and a rover on Mars.
China has been a member of the International Asteroid Warning Network, a centralized information center coordinated by NASA, since 2018. In 2022, Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the administration of the National Space of China, said that China would begin to build a defense of asteroids near Earth. system.
“Our goal is to detect these asteroids, develop defense strategies and, if necessary, find ways to change their orbits so that they no longer represent a threat to humanity or earth,” said Wu Weiren, the chief designer of the exploration program China’s lunar, to Hongxing News in October.
In 2027, China is planning a asteroid deflection test similar to the double asteroid redirection test successfully performed by NASA in 2020. The Chinese test will be carried out in an asteroid called 2015 XF261, which is smaller than the Dimorphic asteroid of 525 feet whose wingers whose 525 feet fiery whose NASA trajectory interrupted when blocking a spacecraft in it.
In recent years, China has achieved “significant progress” in the defense of asteroids, with engineering and telescope construction projects in the works, said Li Mingtao, an expert at the National Center for Space Sciences of the Academy of the Academy of Chinese sciences. Newspaper daily in an interview published on February 10.
“In the future, we will not only strengthen the configuration and performance of the equipment, we will improve operational models and algorithms,” said Li, “but also cultivate specialized talent in asteroid defense, contributing to the wisdom and power of China to safeguard Earth’s safety “.
Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong, and Dawn Liu and Rae Wang reported from Beijing.
