NASA successfully launches mission to slam into an asteroid.
NASA successfully launches mission to slam into an asteroid
Folks, we're off to slam into an asteroid.
For the first time ever, NASA launched an almost year-long test for deflecting an asteroid on Wednesday, the first planetary defence method of its kind.
Launched at 1:21 a.m. ET, Nov. 24 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA's DART mission will intentionally collide with an asteroid to change its orbit. As Mashable’s Mark Kaufman perfectly put it, they will "slam a spacecraft the size of a vending machine into a space rock the size of a great Egyptian pyramid."
The DART mission (or Double Asteroid Redirection Test) was built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and is meant to protect Earth from potential asteroid or comet impacts (though NASA is not currently tracking any, so don't freak out just yet).
DART’s target is the asteroid system Didymos, specifically a 530-foot-wide (160-metre) moonlet. The system is hanging out near Earth but isn't a threat, so has been picked for a safe test.
At 2:17 a.m. ET, DART separated from the second stage of the rocket, and mission operators received the first transmission of data, then started to move the spacecraft to a safe spot to deploy its solar arrays.
And it did! It took about two hours, but the spacecraft unfurled its 28-foot-long solar arrays, which will power the craft and NASA's awesomely named evolutionary xenon thruster — a commercial ion engine, and one of a bunch of tech that's being tested on this mission for future use.
You're not going to see any asteroid collisions for a while — it'll take almost a year. The spacecraft will catch up with Didymos between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1, 2022, and then intentionally body slam it at about 4 miles per second (6 kilometres per second). According to NASA, this impact will cut short the asteroid's orbit by minutes. After the impact, the asteroid's changes will be studied and used in future models to determine how effective this method is at averting potential asteroid collisions with Earth.
You can watch the whole launch here if you're keen:
"DART is turning science fiction into science fact and is a testament to NASA’s proactivity and innovation for the benefit of all," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a press statement on Wednesday. "In addition to all the ways NASA studies our universe and our home planet, we're also working to protect that home, and this test will help prove out one viable way to protect our planet from a hazardous asteroid should one ever be discovered that is headed toward Earth."
He's right. Here's why the test is crucial for humanity.
If you want to track the DART mission yourself, follow @NASA, @AsteroidWatch, and @JHUAPL as it travels to Dimorphos.
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so, we gonna knock an asteroid out of its orbit, that is no threat to us, into another orbit, that may hit another asteroid, that may, in turn, send that asteroid to our orbit to become a threat, or possibly knock it into another asteroid that can become a threat in the future. See where I am going with this? If it is not broken, don't touch it. Because it will become broken.
ReplyDeleteWas watching deep impact on Netflix last week.. Now this ! ?
ReplyDeleteDid it work though? Especially since we didn’t have any action heroes to stop it
ReplyDeletehttps://media1.tenor.co/images/4152d92747102e1e901779e3a8c95c55/tenor.gif?ver=1112&c=VjFfZmFjZWJvb2tfd2ViY29tbWVudHM&itemid=21459112
ReplyDeleteArmageddon
ReplyDeleteIt ends up acting as a boomerang & hitting Earth a few years later 💥🌏
ReplyDeleteyep, I said that same thing, but went down the longer route with it. If it's not broken, don't fix it because it will become broken.
DeleteJust what we need a bumper pool table happening in space w things that can take us out. Smrt.
ReplyDeleteIt might solved to avoid damage earth from astroid hit, but can we solve earth from inside coutries' nuclear war with hypersonic misile?
ReplyDeleteThere goes Armageddon.
ReplyDeleteHave a feeling this will go terribly wrong.
ReplyDeleteVery, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHave you assessed all the risks? These two asteroids are in symbiosis. You have to find a lonely asteroid for this purpose.
ReplyDeleteNah screw the calculations. Just blow stuff up. Put it on PPV I'd pay to see it.
DeleteI really like that idea I think I would too
DeleteWatch we will knock it into a course that will eventually run into another like a pool table then the 8 ball will be headed for earth
ReplyDeleteCan’t they just watch the movie?
ReplyDeletePlease tell me Trump is on board
ReplyDeleteNot based
DeleteSelf Defense
ReplyDeleteSeems like this could be considered an aggressive act by any extra-territorials that lay claim to that area of space. This isnt a risk worth taking.
ReplyDeleteMore interesting than some person allegedly giving birth on some random front yard.
ReplyDeleteUS space cowboys!
ReplyDeleteThuggish on Planet Earth, thuggish in the cosmic highway.
They are giving the Human specie a very bad name.
Sounds like another collosal waste of money.
ReplyDeleteThought that was what Donald J Trumps Space Force job was. Space Force, a no goal or results based money pit.
ReplyDeleteThis is the start to a disaster movie where the spacecraft actually changes the asteroid’s course for a direct hit.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts
DeleteHope it doesn’t deflect off the spacecraft and set it on a course to the White House
ReplyDeleteWe just complained about Russia blowing up a satellite causing space debris. Now we are about to do the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteChanging the trajectory of an asteroid wouldn't add to the space debris problem.
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