China's new planetary defense missionmission/ˈmɪʃən/L1特别重要的任务或计划an important job or plan that someone must do is more ambitiousambitious/æmˈbɪʃəs/L2有雄心的，野心勃勃的having a strong desire to succeed or achieve something difficult than NASA's DART test. The mission will slam a spacecraft into an asteroid before 2030. China aims to directly alteralter/ˈɔːltər/L2改变，更改to change something, usually slightly the asteroid's orbit around the sun, 'or even break up its structure,' said a scientist from the space administration.
The spacecraft will hit its target at over nine kilometers per second. That is much faster than the DART spacecraft. The target is a small asteroid, 2015 XF261, about thirty meters across. It is probably a solid rock, unlike the larger asteroid that DART hit.
The plan uses two spacecraft that launch together but separate in space. One will hit the asteroid, while the other watches the collisioncollision/kəˈlɪʒən/L2碰撞，撞击an accident when two objects hit each other and studies the changes. Finding the target is a major challenge because it is very faint and has only been seen seventy-four times. Also, hitting it will be difficult because the spacecraft must lock onto the tiny asteroid by itself.
After the crash, scientists must detectdetect/dɪˈtɛkt/L2探测，察觉to notice or discover something that is not easy to see the tiny change in the asteroid's orbit. If the mission is successful, it will be China's first complete demonstration of planetary defense. It will combine detection, deflection, and verificationverification/ˌvɛrɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/L2验证，核实the process of proving that something is true or correct in a single campaign.
