Students Win Schweickart Prize for Asteroid Orbit Alteration Panel Proposal

The $10,000 Schweickart Prize is awarded every June to mark Asteroid Day and draw attention to risks from above — and this year's prize is going to a team of students proposing a panel to focus on potential risks associated with asteroid activities.

The winning proposal suggests creating a Panel on Asteroid Orbit Alteration to address the emerging risks posed by unintended changes in asteroid orbits during mining operations, research missions, or spacecraft malfunctions.

The Schweickart Prize is named after Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who advocates for asteroid awareness and planetary defense efforts. The winning proposal, led by Jordan Stone, a Ph.D. student at Imperial College London, anticipates future challenges in space and offers solutions to safeguard our planet.

In the long term, understanding how to divert potentially threatening asteroids is crucial. NASA's DART mission and commercial ventures like AstroForge are exploring ways to mine asteroids for valuable resources. The Panel on Asteroid Orbit Alteration aims to address the risks associated with altering asteroid orbits.

The proposal outlines various scenarios that could lead to hazardous asteroid orbits and suggests establishing best practices for operations near Earth objects. The winning team will receive the prize at Lowell Observatory in Arizona on Asteroid Day, June 30.

According to the source: Universe Today.