Nasa

2022 - 9 - 26

nasa dart nasa dart

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Image courtesy of "Edinburgh News"

NASA DART mission: why was a spacecraft flown into an asteroid ... (Edinburgh News)

NASA has successfully flown its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) into its asteroid target, in what was the agency's first attempt to move an asteroid ...

It orbits a larger, 2,560-foot (780-metre) asteroid called Didymos. [NASA](/read-this/nasa-to-crash-dart-aircraft-into-an-asteroid-tonight-in-first-ever-earth-defence-test-how-to-watch-it-live-3857173) has successfully flown its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) into its asteroid target, in what was the agency’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space. NASA DART mission: why was a spacecraft flown into an asteroid and was the mission a success?

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Image courtesy of "The Independent"

How Nasa's Dart mission could save Earth from rogue asteroids (The Independent)

Nasa's Dart mission will slam into an asteroid on Monday, and help scientists learn how to deflect any future space rocks that threaten our planet.

“Neo Surveyor will be able to find the population of asteroids 140 meters and larger within about a 10 year period,” Dr Johnson said. “Of course, a technique like that takes longer to implement,” Dr Johnson said. “ Hollywood and movies, they have to make it exciting. In the case of the kinetic impactor, it probably need to be larger than Dart, and we also might hit it with several kinetic impactors.” And that’s the main mission of Nasa’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office anyway, he added. “This demonstration is extremely important to our future here on the earth, and life on earth.” “If you have an iron-nickel asteroid, it's not going to happen.” There may be alternatives to kinetic impactors for deflecting such a body, if it ever threatened Earth. Nasa and other space agencies will be watching in the aftermath using ground and space based telescopes in order to see if the impact changes the speed at which Dimorphos orbits its larger asteroid companion, Didymos. Although as a planetary defender, I don't want to be too surprised.” “This is the perfect natural laboratory,” Nasa’s Dart program scientist, Tom Statler, told reporters on Thursday. The key will be ensuring Dart succeeds in striking its target, an asteroid called Dimorphos some 68 million miles from Earth, and then carefully measuring the results.

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Image courtesy of "iNews"

Dart mission: Why Nasa crashed a spaceship into an asteroid (iNews)

Scientists expected the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space, and alter the orbit ...

It travelled roughly 6.8 million miles on its 10-month journey to Dimorphos, a “moonlet” about 160m wide, before finally making contact overnight. It orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, and was chosen due to its proximity to Earth and the ability to measure its movements with a telescope. John Hopkins’s planetary scientist Nancy Chabot said that in order to measure if the mission was a success telescopes will monitor if there is a change in the 11 hours and 55 minutes the asteroid takes takes to complete one orbit. The $325m (£300.5m) mission was carried out to determine whether the orbit of an asteroid could be changed to stop one from striking the Earth in future – Scientists wanted to find out if their method – the kinetic impactor technique – “would be a viable way to protect our planet if an asteroid on a collision course with Earth were discovered in the future”, Nasa said. Scientists expected the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space, and alter the orbit of the asteroid, named Dimorphos.

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Image courtesy of "National Geographic UK"

To practice saving the world, NASA just crashed a spacecraft into an ... (National Geographic UK)

The DART spacecraft slammed into a harmless space rock to change its orbit—a tactic that could be used one day to stop a killer asteroid from hitting Earth.

“We have the technology now to do this and to find these objects years, decades, even a century before they pose an impact threat to the Earth.” “Doing so has clear benefits in ensuring humanity’s ability to deflect a potential threatening asteroid in the future,” Braun said. How much that orbit changes will help scientists learn more about the moonlet, but more importantly, it will tell us whether this type of kinetic impactor is a viable option for deflecting hazardous asteroids. [roughly 95 percent of asteroids](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/episode-14-we-asked-a-nasa-scientist-is-nasa-aware-of-any-earth-threatening-asteroids) that are about the size of Didymos. “For the first time ever, we will measurably change the orbit of a celestial body in the universe.” To test the crucial guidance system, DART’s DRACO camera swivelled to stare at Jupiter and its four largest moons in July and August of this year. “We do have an opportunity coming up in two years, but we don’t want to play that round of golf.” On final approach, about 50 minutes before impact, the system switched over to the moonlet and guided the spacecraft to its crash site. In the weeks leading up to the impact, team members started speculating about what it would look like—a dog bone or a donut, for example, would be tougher to hit. [LICIACube](https://www.asi.it/en/planets-stars-universe/solar-system-and-beyond/liciacube/) arrived to surveil the wreckage. “This is just the first step, but isn’t it exciting that we’re going from science fiction to science reality?” It's also the first test of a bold strategy that could be used to deflect any future asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth.

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