Don Quixote and Sancho Panza ride again. This time, they're satellites Spain is planning to launch in 2010-2015, and the one christened "Don Quixote" is set to smash headlong into an asteroid while Sancho Panza watches to see what happens. It's a test run to see if we can prevent a repeat of the asteroid-induced extinction of the dinosaurs. No one thinks that Don Quixote will actually destroy an asteroid on a collision course with Earth; the point is to nudge it far enough off course to let Earth get the heck out of the way.
Satellite-naming issues aside, at least someone is looking for a way to save the planet from the 1000 or so pieces of space crap that may one day smash into our little corner of habitable space. Here's the link to the Reuters article about the satellites.
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