Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, NASA reveal plans for blasting city-killing asteroids away from Earth

Rock-a-bye, child.

With scientists warning that Earth might be prone to hundreds of undetected asteroids, Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin is creating a planetary protection program that might assist shield us in opposition to a rock-alypse.

Planned in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the Near-Earth Objects (NEO) Hunter mission idea would trial “multiple asteroid-deflection techniques,” per an X post by the firm.

They would accomplish this using Blue Ringthe under-development spacecraft platform that debuted aboard the maiden flight of the agency’s 300-foot New Glenn rocket in early 2025.

This veritable Swiss Army Knife of house infrastructure could be able to internet hosting, refueling and transporting spacecraft for missions for the formidable mission.

First, small satellites could be dispatched to conduct reconnaissance of any probably Earth-bound projectiles, analyzing stats corresponding to mass, so house protection consultants can determine tips on how to greatest deal with the menace, Futurism reported.

As for elimination, Blue Origin proposed deflecting the article utilizing a concentrated ray of particles, dubbed ion beam-deflecting or “robust kinetic disruption,” by which they try to ram the goal off beam.

With the latter, they gave the impression to be taking a leaf from the 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) experiment, by which NASA flew a spacecraft into the mini moon Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour.

While this ostensibly proved that asteroids might be deflected, it additionally precipitated the rock to eject some large boulders that had the potential to hurtle towards Earth like intergalactic shrapnel, a July 2025 study found.

It’s unclear how Blue Origin would account for these potential unwanted effects; However, creating ironclad planetary protection techniques may show very important, given the as much as 15,000 undetected asteroids orbiting near dwelling.

During the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) final month, NASA planetary protection officer Kelly warned that the house rocks are notably insidious as a result of they’re sufficiently small to avoid detection but large enough to take out a city.

According to Fast, there are round 25,000 of those NEOs passing inside our planet’s neighborhood — and we solely know the situation of round 40%.

NASA is at present creating its Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission, the first-ever house telescope particularly designed to detect probably hazardous asteroids and comets, which tracks utilizing infrared sensors that may choose up objects that do not mirror a lot seen mild.

We could should develop a rock-stopping system prior to we might anticipated.

scientists have warned that the infamous city-killer asteroid YR4 — which has been on our radar since 2024 — has a 4% likelihood of crashing into the moon inside six years.

To forestall that final result, house protection consultants have proposed nuking it like one thing out of the sci-fi thriller “Armageddon.”