China has initiated recruitment for a planetary defense force following risk assessments indicating that an asteroid could potentially collide with Earth in 2032. Job postings from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) this week targeted young, loyal graduates specializing in aerospace engineering, international collaboration, and asteroid detection.
This recruitment effort coincides with heightened attention on the 2024 YR4 asteroid, which has a low but increasing probability of impacting Earth in seven years. The asteroid is currently at the top of the risk lists for both European and US space agencies, with analysts recently raising the likelihood of a collision from 1.3% to 2.2%. The UN’s Space Mission Planning Advisory Group, which includes countries with space programs like China, has been convening regularly to discuss potential responses.
The job ads, shared on WeChat, listed 16 vacancies at SASTIND, including three positions for the new planetary defense force. They called for applications from recent graduates under 35 years old, requiring professional and technical qualifications along with a strong political alignment with the Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping.
The ads sparked significant online discussion among young people, a group that faced record-high unemployment rates in 2023. Comments ranged from expressing the pressure of such a responsibility to the notion that success would make one a hero, while failure would have no repercussions.
The job descriptions indicate that the force will prioritize international cooperation and the development of new technologies. Positions are focused on “research on monitoring and early warning of near-Earth asteroids,” requiring candidates to hold a master’s degree or higher in fields such as astrophysics, earth and space exploration technology, and aerospace science and technology.
China’s aerospace sector is progressing, and it remains unclear if this recruitment is directly linked to the discovery of the 2024 YR4 asteroid. SASTIND has not commented on the matter.
Andrew Jones, a correspondent specializing in China’s aerospace sector, noted that the timing of the recruitment seems coincidental with the asteroid’s discovery, suggesting that these positions are likely an addition to China’s ongoing efforts to enhance its planetary defense capabilities. This includes the development of monitoring and warning systems, both terrestrial and potentially extraterrestrial, as well as preparations to test methods like kinetic impactors to change the trajectories of threatening asteroids. Deflecting an asteroid like 2024 YR4 appears to be a significant focus of China’s aerospace initiatives, including plans to replicate NASA’s 2020 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
