Historic moment: NASA is ready to "defend" the Earth, the spacecraft hit the asteroid

Historic moment: NASA is ready to "defend" the Earth, the spacecraft hit the asteroid

The DART spacecraft, slated for a double-redirect test of asteroids, collided with one of them tonight just for probe purposes, in a historic effort by NASA's Planetary Defense Program.

More and more people are talking about the problem of space debris that endangers the equipment launched by man into space. Worn-out parts float freely through the cosmos, and even the smallest can endanger lives and cause serious damage. In addition to the waste for which man is responsible, there are also asteroids that are more dangerous.

According to data from 2019, about 170 million pieces of different waste orbit the planet Earth, while about 29 thousand are moving at high speed. Most of them are fragments that were separated from larger parts at some point. About 670 thousand pieces are larger than one centimeter, which in the future could represent a potential danger for equipment in space and communication on Earth. There are other dangers in the vastness of space - asteroids can become a major threat. That is why they have been working for some time on techniques that would divert them from the path, if they ever come our way. One such mission was launched in November 2021, writes PC Press. With the help of the Falcon 9 rocket, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) probe traveled over 10 million kilometers, intercepted its target and prepared for the task: ramming into asteroid 65803 Didymos.

The target asteroid consists of the larger Didymos and the smaller Dimorphos, and the NASA mission is targeting the latter. The action is scheduled for September 27. The satellite LICIACube is responsible for imaging the probe and the surface of the asteroid. The probe weighs 610 kilograms, and its goal is to deflect the smaller asteroid from its path - after the impact, it should differ by about a centimeter per second. It sounds like a small thing, but it's a change that's enough to divert an asteroid from its dangerous path - it just needs to be detected in time.

Didymos asteroids are not dangerous to Earth, so this is a drill. The test is of course a historic event, because one day a similar probe could save the Earth from a larger asteroid or even a piece of space debris - man is building more and more, even in space.