NASA Ready for Practice , Mission to Redirect Potentially , Deadly Asteroids.
'The Independent' reports that NASA
plans to slam a high-speed spacecraft into
a massive asteroid in an attempt to redirect it.
The space agency's experimental
mission will take place on
September 26 and will be aired live.
The Double Asteroid Redirection
Test mission, or DART, was
launched in November of 2021.
It is designed to make contact
with the asteroid Dimorphos in
an attempt to alter its orbit.
'The Independent' reports
that Dimorphos does not
pose a threat to Earth.
The mission is meant to provide scientists with data
needed to construct a similar mission to redirect
a hypothetical asteroid that actually threatens Earth.
The mission is a crucial step in NASA's planetary
defense initiative which looks to identify and
mitigate threats posed by asteroids to life on Earth.
DART is headed for a high-speed
collision with Dimorphos around
6.8 million miles from Earth. .
The car-sized spacecraft will impact
the asteroid at around 4 miles per
second, or 14,400 miles per hour.
In 2027, the European Space Agency's HERA
mission will arrive at Dimorphos to assess
the impact of DART on the asteroid's orbit.
In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring NASA to catalog at least 90% of all asteroids large enough to pose a significant threat to Earth.
Dart is an early test of the types of technologies and mission profiles
needed to potentially avert widespread destruction similar to what
is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs