NASA launches spacecraft with hopes of deviating asteroid from its original course
- NASA will blast a SpaceX rocket into space on Tuesday
- They hope to deviate the course of an asteroid
- The asteroid is not dangerous for the Earth
NASA is working on a mission to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid in order to make it swerve from its original course. In case you are panicking, don’t. The mission is supposed to be a test run in case humanity ever needs saving from a giant space rock which might wipe us from the face of Earth.
While this sounds straight out of science fiction, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is an original proof-of-concept experiment. A SpaceX rocket will blast into space at 10:21 PM Pacific Time on Tuesday (06:21 GMT, Wednesday) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
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SpaceX tweeted a positive update and said the systems as well as the weather looked good for the launch. Elon Musk’s company wrote, “All systems and weather are looking good for tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of @NASA ’s DART into an asteroid-intercepting interplanetary trajectory”.
A static fire test was successfully completed on November 23 and if the method turns out to be successful, it will be an achievement that will be celebrated globally.
The goal is to slightly alter the trajectory of an asteroid, Dimorphous, a term which means a moonlet. It is approximately 525 feet wide (as much as two statues of Liberty) and circles a much bigger asteroid called Didymos which is approximately 2,500 feet in diameter. The two orbit the sun together.
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The impact is expected to take place in the fall of 2022 when the asteroid is 6.8 million miles from Earth, which is almost the nearest point they have ever gotten.
NASA’s top scientist Thomas Zuburchen said the project valued at $330 million was the first of its kind. “What we’re trying to learn is how to deflect a threat,” he said.
There are around 10,000 known near-Earth asteroids which are 460 feet in size or greater but not one of them has a significant chance of hitting Earth in the next 100 years.
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