Meet Julie Bellerose: the Quebecer who deflected an asteroid

On Monday, Quebec native Julie Bellerose was at the controls of a spacecraft that deflected an asteroid in a planetary defense test.

The Canadian press spoke to the woman, who grew up in Sainte-Julie, Que. and dreamed of outer space while watching Star Wars.

Bellerose shed a tear on Monday night as the spacecraft called Dart struck an asteroid nearly 10 million kilometers from Earth and traveling at more than 22,500 km/h.

“I shed a tear. We were relieved to see that everything went well and that we achieved our goal, our goal with the mission, so it was amazing to see that. Certainly there were a lot of emotions, and then it’s also proud to see that the whole experiment worked really well,” said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s chief navigator.

The mission was to hit the asteroid Dimorphos and change its orbit in preparation for the moment when such a rock would actually endanger Earth.

The $325 million mission was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or other natural object in space. The probe was launched in November 2021.

The Quebecer can now say “mission accomplished,” which doesn’t mean the job is done.

“Now we have to wait for the results of the measurements of the deviation, the trajectory”, so “in the next few days, in the next few weeks, many telescopes will be looking at the Dimorphos asteroid.”

The engineer and her team are now trying to determine “the material properties of this asteroid” because “there are a lot of uncertainties about its cohesive strength, about the material it’s made of,” which will affect “how the asteroid really deflects.” becomes .”

“NO IMMEDIATE DANGER”

The scientific skills on display this week could be used to deflect an asteroid that threatens Earth only if the threat is known well in advance.

“For example, if we know that an asteroid is going to hit us in the next few years or the next 10 years,” but “for example, if we realize that an asteroid is going to hit us in 24 hours, then that would be a different context and a different technique,” explains the engineer.

“There are other techniques being studied, some involving explosives or even nuclear techniques, and I’m sure we would find a way if there was an imminent threat,” Bellerose said.

However, the engineer wanted to reassure the earthlings who may be nervous.

“There is no immediate danger,” she said. “We’ve cataloged millions of asteroids and it’s unlikely, if not impossible, but that’s why we’re doing experiments. There is no danger in the next 100 or 150 years.”

FROM SAINTE-JULIE TO SATURN

Originally from Sainte-Julie, the engineer loved math, science and problem solving as a child, but also loved the Star Wars series, especially the old ones.

As a teenager, Bellerose was interested in outer space and the celestial bodies within.

“When Julie Payette became an astronaut, space just got a little closer for me,” she said.

Bellerose received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University, a master’s degree in science and engineering from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the same university.

She has worked in Japan assisting in the navigation of the JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission.

Hayabusa 2 is a spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that was launched in 2014 and will reach the asteroid Ryugu in 2018. The probe is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

She lives in Pasadena, California, and since fall 2014 has also been responsible for the trajectory of NASA’s Cassini mission, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004.

– This report from The Canadian Press was first published in French on September 27, 2022.