Proven Capabilities (2005)

NASA planned and executed the Deep Impact mission successfully in 2015.  

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• Impact speed was 10.3 km/s

• Comet size was 6 km across

• It was not intended to hit the center of gravity (CG) of the comet, and it did not hit its CG  

In its historical mission, Deep Impact, NASA successfully hit comet Tempel One, capture the moment of impact with a high speed camera, and analysed what the comet was made of.

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This mission also prove that we are capable of hitting celestial object at extremely high speed.  In comparison, the speed of bullet from the service pistol is 0.38 km/s and  the speed of M-16 is 0.96 km/s.

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Does this mean we can deflect an asteroid now?