Striking Preemptively

SIXTY YEARS AGO I would have predicted that by the year twenty twenty two I would either be living on Mars or on tne moon, my choice. Such were my excessively optimistic visions of humanity's future in exploring and developing outer space. My childhood lve of science fiction, rocktes, space flight, and the Apollo moon landing program didn't exactly bring about the exciting future I had imagined, but I have no complaints; here we still are, dreaming, striving. The Earth getting hit by a large asteroid or meteroite large enough to do great damage to or to even destroy the Earth has been the topic of countless sci fi yars, in print, on television, and in cinema, appropriatesly so, since such a catacylsmic event is well within the range of possibility. It could happen at any time. Fortunately, humanity's ability and willingness to constantly scan the skies for newly discovered space debris zooming towards Earth gives ua a very good chance of detecing - and avoiding - such a collission. All we need is a bit of practice, to confirm our ability. That is whay today, Monday, Spetember 26, 2022, a human made rocket payload the size of a small car will, if all goes well, smash into an asteroid seven million miles from Earth, at a speed of fourteen thousand miles per hour, roughly. Assuming that the colission occurs, and the likelihood is overwhelming, scientists will be able to take a very good picture of the impact, and measure how much it changes the direction of the asteroid, which is about the size of a city block. We hope, for the sake of Earth's security, that the asteroid, once struck, will change its velocity and direction exactly as planned and predicted. The project will have cost close to half a billion dollars, but will have been well worth it, if for no other reason than to assure ourselves of our ability to save ourselves from a large, incoming piece of space rock. And, like everyone says; it isn't a matter if "if"; its a mattter of "when". Every day thousands if not millions of rocks, most of them the size of a speck of dust, enter the Earth's atmosphere and "collide" with Earth. Very large, devastating rocks have struck the Earth in the past, and doubtless will again, unless we prevent it. If only we can learn to protect ourselves from a threat and danger far greater than any meteor or asteroid: ourselves.