NASA: Sends test mission into space for possible asteroid danger

The US space agency (NASA) DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which is set to launch on November 24, will crash into the small satellite Dimorph of the asteroid Gemini in the fall of 2022, in a “rehearsal” of a planetary defense such a space rock poses a threat to Earth in the future.

It will be the first test of a technology to prevent a catastrophic asteroid. While at times various spacecraft have deliberately not landed on celestial bodies, this will be the first time this has been done deliberately in the name of saving the Earth from a future danger.

The impact of the DART spacecraft on the asteroid at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second will aim to deflect it slightly from its orbit, something that may need to be done in the future with another large asteroid that is in danger of being carried into orbit. right on our planet.

The $ 330 million DART spacecraft is scheduled to launch Wednesday morning (around 08:20 Greek time) from Vanderberg base in California on a Space X Falcon 9 rocket and, if all goes well, is expected to reach end of 2022 in his target, Didymus (diameter about 800 meters) and in his smallest “match”, Dimorfos (diameter 160 meters). They themselves are not a danger to our planet.

The “bombardment” of Dimorphos is expected to slightly alter its trajectory, so that it orbits the Gemini at least 73 seconds faster. Telescopes from Earth will watch to see if this really happened. At the same time, DART, ten days before its impact, will release the small Italian spacecraft LICIACube that will approach Dimorfos at a distance of 55 km and with its cameras will photograph the “meteorites” of the impact.

NASA has found more than 27,000 asteroids of various sizes, whose orbits bring them closer to Earth. Despite advances in the detection of asteroids that occasionally approach our planet, so far astronomers estimate that only 30% to 40% of nearby objects more than 140 meters in diameter have been detected. That is why it has been realized that a planetary defense technology must be ready if an unpleasant surprise arises from above (such as the one that probably wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago), which is unlikely but not unlikely.

Following in the footsteps of the US mission will be the European Space Agency (ESA) European HERA mission, which will send a German-made spacecraft, accompanied by two microsatellites (Milani and Juventas cubesats), to Gemini and Dimorphos to study them more closely. and see first hand the crater that has been created, as well as the other effects of the DART impact. HERA is expected to launch in 2024 and reach its asteroid and moon at the end of 2026.

The original plan was for HERA to launch in parallel with DART, in order to immediately monitor the latter’s impact. But the Europeans were late and so HERA will visit Gemini and Dimorpho with a delay of a few years.

The DART launch will be covered live on NASA television.