Hollywood doomsday movies have depicted enormous asteroids headed towards the Earth, threatening to wipe out the entire human race. A non-profit organization in Denmark believes this scenario can happen in real life, although to a smaller extent, and the group is seeking funds to prepare for such an eventuality.
Engineers and science entrepreneurs from the group Emergency Asteroid Defence Project (EADP) think smaller and medium-sized asteroids, with a diameter from 100 to 1,000 feet, can destroy a town or city much like an atomic bomb.
"A 30-meter-wide or 50-meter-wide asteroid is called a small town killer; it's a disaster no question about that," Dr. Bong Wie, a professor of engineering at Iowa State University, explained.
Unlike larger asteroids that can be detected by government agencies even years before they hit the Earth, smaller ones can go undetected until a few weeks before they crash into a city or a small town.
"A 150-meter-wide asteroid is called 'city killer'... It can destroy a typical metropolitan area, with no guarantee in warning time," Wie added.
For these reasons, the EADP launched an effort on crowdfunding website Indiegogo to raise $200,000 which will be used for its research into what it calls the hypervelocity asteroid intercept vehicles (HAIVs).
The vehicles, according to EADP, are designed to "deflect or disperse asteroids and comets with only a few days' warning."
"This global crowdfunding campaign, the first ever for active asteroid defence, will fund a design feasibility study for the development, construction and in-space testing of HAIV asteroid defence spacecraft, to be followed by the production of several HAIVs that will be ready for use in case of emergency," EADP's crowdfunding pitch stated.
Big-time funders can receive a 3D file of the HAIV design, a rocket car ride and even a piece of an asteroid from EADP. Those who will give smaller amounts can get shoulder patches, badges, bumper stickers and "space cream" sandwiches.
