Is Nasa’s latest mission really necessary?

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The space agency is testing technology that could divert dangerous asteroids (Getty/iStockphoto)

Surely the law of conservation of momentum is a well-established scientific “law” that most A-level students could employ. Why do Nasa need to crash a vehicle into the Dimorphos asteroid to find out the effect on its trajectory?

The impact will potentially result in either changing the path of the asteroid and/or a change in the spin of the object. This will depend on the shape and existing rotation of the asteroid. Since asteroids do not have a uniform shape what will be learned?

EDT Hodges

Nuneaton

Baby blues

Are we stuck in a never-ending time-wasting loop?I had to read the article twice when I saw that another MP has been told she cannot bring her baby into the Commons. Yes, I get that dragging a hoard of disruptive toddlers in there would not be ideal but a quiet breast-fed baby to enable a politician to sit in on an important meeting?

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Freedom in sight

Boris Johnson said in November 2020: “We can see the sunlit upland pastures ahead.”

One year on, blurred vision?

Mike Bor

London

Brexit minister

Oh the irony! The Brexiteers in government having railed against the power of “unelected bureaucrats” in Brussels appoint one in Lord Frost to determine the future of our relationship with the rest of Europe. Perhaps Boris believes in the adage of “it takes one to know one.”

Roger Thomas

East Lothian

Speech combat

Could it be that there’s a mole in Boris Johnson’s speech-writing department, and someone there wants rid of him as much as any of the rest of us?

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire