China opens recruitment for ‘planetary defence force’ amid fears of asteroid hitting Earth | China
China began to recruit the planetary defense force after it determined risk assessments that the asteroid could depict the Earth in 2032.
The functional ads published by the Government Administration for Science, Technology and Industry in China for National Defense (SASTIND) has sought this week, and the focus of young sincere graduates is on air space engineering, international cooperation and asteroids detection.
The recruitment campaign comes amid the increasing focus on an asteroid with the possibility of hitting the Earth in seven years. The asteroid 2024 YR4 is located at the top of risk lists in European space agencies and the United StatesAnd last week, analysts increased his possibility to hit the Earth from 1.3 % to 2.2 %. The Consultative Group for Planning of the Mission at the United Nations, which includes countries with space programs, including China, meets regularly to discuss the response.
The ads, published in WeChat earlier this week, included 16 job jobs in SASTIND, including three in favor of the new “planetary defense force”. They invited requests from new graduates between 35 years old, with professional and technical qualifications and a “fixed political position” that supports the Chinese Communist Party and ideology in line with its leader, Xi Jinping.
The ads prompted a widespread discussion online among young people – a population that witnessed unemployment rates reaching a record level in 2023.
“The Earth depends on you three. Isn’t this exhausted?” He asked one person.
“If you succeed, you are a hero who saves the world,” another common comment on Weibo said. “But no one is punishing you for failure, I mean, no one is” literally “.
Advertising job descriptions indicate that the force will focus on international cooperation, and the design of new and experimental technology systems. The planetary defense force functions are described as “a research on early monitoring and warning from asteroids near the Earth”, and the graduates are required to obtain a master’s degree or higher, with specializations in astronomical physics, Earth and space exploration technology, and air space science.
The space sector in China is progressing, and it is not clear that employment has been pushed specifically with the discovery of the asteroid. Sastind did not respond to the suspension requests.
Andrew Jones, a correspondent at SpaceNews, a China Sector, said that the timing of employment seemed to be by chance with the discovery of 2024 YR4, and the jobs are likely to be “supplementary for China’s efforts to develop its brochet defense capabilities.”
“This includes monitoring and warning systems, on Earth and perhaps in space, and preparing for measures testing such as motor effects to change the threat asteroids that threaten.”
It seems that an asteroid deviation like 2024 YR4 is the main axis for the development of Chinese space, including plans to repeat the year 2020 Double asteroid redirect test (Dart), which was conducted by NASA. DART included the failure of a spacecraft in a 160 -meter asteroid called Dimorphos, where he succeeded in converting its course for the first time. The European Space Agency later launched another spacecraft to monitor and report the DART effect on Dimorphos.
China also prepares its own carpet test, on a smaller asteroid called 2015 xF261, in 2027. But Harrison Agrosa, the world of planets in Observatoire Del La Côte d’Azur, said there were concerns about the smaller size of China targeting.
“Given what we have learned from Dar, a similar influence on a smaller goal is likely to be completely disrupted,” he said. “This may not be the most useful mitigation strategy, as you can create a larger problem by converting a single slander (with a well -known path) to many fragments (with unknown paths).”
Harrison said there is no need for excessive discomfort around 2024 years, noting that many countries and air space organizations are working together.
“We know that we have the ability to convert a asteroid like this, as the DART mission has shown. So this asteroid does not need fear, but rather it must be studied and understood.”
An additional search for Jasson Tzu Kwan Lu
