#nasa #dart
Defendinged earth from giant space rocks | NASA DARTs Mission
NASA DART stands for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. It is a planetary defense mission led by NASA, designed to test the capability of redirecting the path of an asteroid. The primary objective of the DART mission is to demonstrate the kinetic impact technique, which involves colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid to alter its trajectory.
The target for the DART mission is a binary asteroid system known as Didymos. Didymos consists of two asteroids, a larger one measuring about 780 meters in diameter, and a smaller moonlet with a diameter of around 160 meters. The DART spacecraft is intended to collide with the smaller moonlet, known as Didymoon or Dimorphos.
The DART spacecraft will be equipped with an onboard camera, autonomous navigation, and guidance systems to help it navigate towards Didymoon. It will impact the moonlet at a speed of around 6 kilometers per second. The impact is expected to change the moonlet's velocity by a small amount but enough to be measured from Earth-based telescopes.
By observing the change in Didymoon's orbit, scientists will gain valuable data about the effectiveness of the kinetic impact technique for deflecting asteroids. This information will be crucial for developing future strategies to protect Earth from potential asteroid impacts.
The DART mission is a joint effort between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The spacecraft is set to launch in November 2021, and the impact with Didymoon is expected to occur in September 2022. The European Space Agency (ESA) is also contributing to the mission by providing a small satellite called Hera, which will perform a detailed post-impact analysis of the asteroid system.
The DART mission represents an important step in our ability to understand and potentially mitigate the threat posed by near-Earth asteroids. By testing asteroid deflection techniques, we can develop strategies to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts.
