Pushing Asteroids – NASA Tried It

If it were up to Hollywood, Earth would have been shielded from being hit by asteroids multiple times. But what was science fiction until now will become NASA Now test concrete – you Asteroidenabwehrsystem Double Asteroid Redirect Test, Kurz Dart.

Planetary protection takes place in two phases. It is necessary to first search the sky for as many asteroids as possible and then track them over a long period of time for scientists to model trajectories and predict longer ones in the future. To date, scientists have identified more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids, of which about 10,000 are larger than 140 m, that is, the size at which experts fear major regional damage in the event of an impact.

There are currently no hazardous asteroids, but should one be identified, phase two will begin. With the help of a method known as a kinetic impactor, the Dart space probe is then supposed to hit the asteroid at high speed to eject it from its dangerous trajectory.

The mission is a technical test designed to determine whether the asteroid’s course can be changed. The object of the mission is the asteroid pair Didymos and its moon Dimorphos,

A small probe will detach from the dart before impact and observe the effort. Investigation provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The shoebox-sized LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids) will separate from the Mini Moon and take pictures of the collision a few days before DART hits it. The European Space Agency is also following Hera such project.

The $330 million project will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, November 24. DART plans to hit an asteroid 11 million kilometers from Earth on October 2, 2022. The asteroid will not go close to Earth.