Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission
NASA, the US Space Agency has announced that they will launch an asteroid-killing Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on 24th November, 2021. NASA is ready for the upcoming launch, an evaluation of technologies that will prevent a dangerous asteroid from hitting Earth.
Highlights
- The spacecraft will be launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
- DART will be the first demonstration of kinetic impact technology, in which one or more large, high-speed spacecraft are sent into orbit of an asteroid in space to change its motion.
- Their destination is the near-Earth binary asteroid named Didymos and its moon.
- Didymos asteroid system is approximately 109.4 million kilometers from Earth.
- As part of this mission, NASA will develop advanced technologies that would protect Earth from dangerous asteroid collisions.
- At a speed of 15,140 km per hour, this spaceship will crash into Didymos.
- At the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), this space carft has been developed and built.
About Double Asteroid Redirection Test
DART is a test of technology powered by planetary defense to prevent a dangerous asteroid from hitting Earth. DART will be the first demonstration of kinetic impact technology to change the motion of an asteroid in space. NASA has been planning this spacecraft because scientists and astronomers have warned against Asteroids that can cause the most damage if we don’t develop a proper defense system against them. For example, the dinosaurs became extinct after an asteroid hit the earth 66 million years ago. This spacecraft will achieve kinetic impact deflection by deliberately hitting the moon piece at a speed of around 6.6 km / s with the help of sophisticated autonomous navigation software and an onboard camera (called a DRACO).
Conclusion
This mission is based on the idea of developing a defense system against asteroid collisions and has reached its final stages of development. The Didymos system consists of two asteroids, namely Dimorphos and Didymos. The spacecraft will crash into Dimorphos to see if kinetic impact technology can be a reliable way to deflect asteroids. Kinetic impactor technology requires the spacecraft to fly directly into a small body in the solar system.
