Washington, November 23, : , The US Space Agency is ready to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft (DART), which will crash into an asteroids on Wednesday. NASA stated in a statement that the DART mission will launch on November 24 at 1:51 EST (1:51 AM India Time) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
DART’s spacecraft was designed to strike an asteroid to test technology and see how it affects the orbit of an asteroid.If an Earth-threatening or potentially dangerous asteroid becomes discovered, the mission will test whether intentionally hitting a spacecraft in an asteroid’s path is an efficient way to alter its trajectory.
The target spacecraft is the near-Earth binary asteroid Didymos with its moonlet.They pose no threat or danger to Earth.
In a blog post, Thomas Zurbuchen (NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science Mission Directorate) stated that DART would be the first human test of planetary defense — to determine if it is possible to change an asteroid’s course should one ever come toward Earth.
DART currently plans to make contact with the Didymos binary Asteroid System between September 26th and October 1st next year.
Zurbuchen stated that DART will have to distinguish between the impact target Dimorphos from Didymos’ parent asteroid, Dimorphos.This is despite being millions of miles away.
This will be possible with one instrument: the Didymos Reconnaissance Camera and Asteroid camera for Optical Navigation (DRACO), and a complex suite of algorithms known as SMART Nav.
DART will identify and lock onto Dimorphos once it kinetically impacts the moonlet of an asteroid at 15,000 miles per hours — this is to refer that DART will travel the last four miles of the moonlet in one second.This will alter the time required for Dimorphos orbit Didymos.
The international observation campaign will measure this time change and help prove that an asteroid impact, even kinetic deflection is possible.
Zurbuchen stated that while the “Didymos” system does not pose a threat to Earth, it is important to prepare for any possible threats from one of these massive bodies rising out of the void.
rvt/bg #NASA #asteroid #defense #Wednesday
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