To date, nearly 30,000 so-called near-Earth asteroids have been discovered. Some of them may pose a threat to the Earth and there is a non-zero probability of their collision with our planet, so monitoring their orbits is vital.
Modern telescopes detect about 3,000 new near-Earth asteroids each year, and the number is growing. Because of this, NASA needs an efficient operating system that can quickly calculate the orbits of such space bodies. And such a system will be Sentry-II.
The first version of Sentry’s operational software is quite a powerful system. Using mathematical algorithms, the Watchtower calculated the asteroid’s probable orbit for the next 100 years and predicted the risk of a collision with Earth. This operational software took into account the many gravitational interactions of the asteroid to calculate its orbit. And this was the problem – space bodies are affected not only by gravity.
More details at the link.
Let’s hope that Sentry-II will live up to all expectations and help save our civilization from a hypothetical catastrophe.