We didn’t know that Asteroids were such a big problem for
earth. While the smaller ones get burnt as soon as they hit the earth’s
atmosphere, there have been reports of big asteroids hitting the earth thousands of years ago. The phenomena could happen again, which is probably the reason why
University of Strathclyde Glasgow has taken upon them and are introducing a programme to tackle asteroids and
space debris.
The university has invited world-leading scientists who will take upon the task of deflecting asteroids and manipulating space debris. Called the Stardust programme – it aims to protect the planet and space assets from catastrophic impacts from these roaming space rocks. The university has taken the first step to find the postgraduate researchers for the Stardust initiative. They will train the new scientists, engineers and policy-makers from a pool of 100 qualified applicants.
Big names such as Prof.
Bruce Conway, an expert on space trajectory optimisation from the
University of Illinois and Prof. Hiroshi Yamakawa, from
Kyoto University, expert on manipulation of asteroids and space debris will give their two cents during the week of activities at the university. The Stardust network will employ and train 11 post-graduate and 4 post-doctorate researchers over 4 years, including 2 PhD students (Research Assistants) and 1 post-doctorate Research Fellow at Strathclyde.
All of them with one and only one aim, to deflect and manage space debris better. This is a good initiative taken up by the university that might help save lives and earths infrastructure in the future.
