Elon Musk recently tweeted, “Avenge the dinosaurs!” referring to a NASA mission targeted to impact which asteroid in 2022?
Dimorphos
VR4
Nereus
Apophis
Answer: Dimorphos
In November, SpaceX founder Elon Musk asked NASA to ”avenge the dinosaurs” in its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which aims to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid. The target is an asteroid “moonlet” which is the size of a football stadium. The impact is expected to take place in the fall of 2022.
According to Matthew Stuttard, head of R&D for Airbus Defence and Space Ltd in the Space Systems division, ”hitting an asteroid dead on with a direct hit is something that has never been done before, so it would be a first human achievement.”
“You need a fantastic guidance and navigation system because you’re travelling so fast and the asteroid is travelling so fast towards you… It’s a very small target, even though it’s the size of a pyramid, it’s a very small target in the vastness of space to go and rendezvous with and to hit dead on.”
Amazon Quiz: What is this season called where the dead leaves are shed?
Amazon Quiz: Which of these is the national animal of this country?
