The Double Asteroid Redirection Test is scheduled to launch on November 24.
Space 23 November 2021.
By Leah Crane.
The LICIACube and DART are depicted.
Steve Gribben is from APL.
NASA is about to hit an asteroid. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is scheduled to launch on 24 November in an effort to learn more about how we might protect Earth from an incoming space rock.
Dimorphos is a moon of Didymos, and it's called Didymoon. It is about 160 metres across and the pair are on the same side of the sun. DART is expected to hit Dimorphos on 2 October 2022.
DART has only scientific instruments that will allow it to navigate to Dimorphos, a difficult feat given the space rock's distance from us, small size and the fact that Didymos is once every 11 hours and 55 minutes. The craft has a mass of 500 grams and its sole aim is to crash into the asteroid at a speed of 6.6 kilometres per second.
DART will be carried with it another small satellite called the Light Italian Cubesat, which will separate from it 10 days before impact. It has two cameras that will document the encounter and how it affects Dimorphos. The European Space Agency is going to launch a mission called Hera in 2024.
There is a mission to stop killer asteroids from hitting Earth.
This is a test run for a scenario in which an asteroid is carried out on an asteroid that poses no danger to us. NASA is trying to learn how to avoid a threat that would come in, said Thomas Zurbuchen in a press conference on 22 November. The rock is not a threat right now and will not be a threat after.
The goal of the crash is to change Didymoon's position around Didymos. This would show that asteroid trajectory can be changed by smashing something into them.
Ed Reynolds is the DART project manager at the University of Maryland.
It is estimated that only 40 per cent of the near-Earth asteroids more than 140 metres across have been found so far. DART will help us develop a plan should one be found, and there are several ways to dodge potentially dangerous asteroids.
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