A group of Chinese scientists are looking to catch rocky objects falling to the ground, and bring them to the surface of the earth for study and mining, and this seems to be somewhat a fantasy, but researchers from the National Center for Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences say this is possible.

Researcher Li Mingtao and his team presented the idea at a conference to explore ideas for future technology in Shenzhen. The Chinese scientist says the mission could focus on asteroids that cross Earth's orbit, which could make them a potential danger in the future. The Chinese project could turn the threat into a new source for rare materials.

The asteroids targeted by this project will be small, perhaps only a few hundred tons. The first step is to send a fleet of small robotic sensors to intercept space rocks, to have these vehicles deploy a kind of "thermal bag", covering the asteroid, allowing the robots to slowly change their path and guide them back to Earth.

Small objects like this often explode when they fall into the atmosphere, such as the "Chelyabinsk" meteorite, which exploded over Russia in 2013. The Chinese ambition to this point seems difficult, but it is technically possible using current technology.

The arrival of space rocks to Earth without explosion will require some new systems, which are considered theoretical only at this stage.

The sensors will need to deploy a very strong heat shield, sufficient to cover the entire surface of the asteroid, as it is likely to crumble on its way to the surface of the Earth.

The heat shield will slow the rocky body, to 459 feet per second, from about 7.7 miles per second. At this speed, rocky bodies can land on the surface, mostly intact.

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