Photo shows China's first lunar sample at the opening ceremony on the Space Day of China on April 24, 2021. Photo: Deng Xiaoci/GT

China is planning on building an asteroid monitoring and defense system, and plans to carry out a technical experiment as early as 2025 on a threatening asteroid by closely tracking and attacking it to change its orbit, China National Space Administration (CNSA) deputy head Wu Yanhua disclosed on this year's Space Day of China, which fell on Sunday. 

Experts noted that China's asteroid defense system could be an important supplement in addressing the threats of asteroids hitting Earth, and it is another practical solution that China proposes to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

China will proceed to set up a near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defense system to deal with the threat of asteroid impacting on spacecraft, and contribute to protect the safety of the Earth and mankind, Wu said during an interview with the China Central Television. 

A ground-based and space-based monitoring and warning system for asteroids will be set up to catalog and analyze asteroids that pose a threat to humanity's space activities, and then relevant technology and engineering will be developed to dispel the threats. 

Wu told the Global Times that the CNSA is developing a simulation software for possible impact from near-Earth asteroids and will organize rehearsals for the defense process to address the common threat and shouldering the responsibility as a major global power in safeguarding the Earth with other countries. 

Mission insiders revealed to the Global Times on Sunday that the system is currently at the project establishment phase and being reviewed for approval, which involves the close coordination of multiple departments. 

Song Zhongping, a military expert and space observer, told the Global Times on Sunday that currently the US and Russia are also building asteroid monitoring systems, and China's defense system could be an important supplement in addressing the threats of asteroids hitting Earth.

"This is another practical solution that China proposes to build a community with a shared future for mankind, and it is the duty for a major space power to protect mankind from possible disasters that could end the entire human civilization," Song said. 

"By looking at the impact craters of various sizes on the moon, it is obvious that asteroid impact is not that unusual or unrealistic for us mankind," Li Mingtao, professor at the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The latest asteroid impact incident happened in 2013 in Russia's Chelyabinsk, when an approximately 18 meter-diameter near-Earth asteroid entered the atmosphere and exploded 30 kilometers above the ground. Its power equaled to about 30 atomic bombs, which caused over 1,500 injuries and damaging over 3,000 houses. 

Russian authorities later confirmed a meteor had struck Russia and said it proved that the entire planet is vulnerable to meteors, and a space guard system is needed to protect the planet from similar objects in the future.

Currently, the most practical measure to avoid such an impact is by hitting a threatening asteroid and change its original course, Li said. 

To achieve this, China will need a carrier rocket with exceptionally large thrust, and that would put China in the front line of the world's asteroid defense technology, experts said. 

The US is developing a Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Launched from Earth in November 2021, the mission will deliberately crash a space probe into the minor-planet moon Dimorphos of the double asteroid Didymos to assess the future potential of a spacecraft impact to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.