NASA’s DART Mission | How NASA will destroy an asteroid to defend Earth
An asteroid named Didymos is posing a threat to Earth, due to which NASA is going to launch a mission this November to strike it. Mission Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will launch at 10:50 am IST on 24 November. DART will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US. Media and NASA will cover this launch will go live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and its website.
Why do we need planetary defence?
There are a lot of objects that orbit the sun that brings them close to our planet’s orbit. NASA tracks such near-Earth objects to ensure they do not become threats. Nasa also marks some of these objects as “potentially hazardous” if they are 140 meters or more in size and come within 0.05 AU(astronomical unit) to earth. To protect earth from unncecessary damages, we need planetary defence systems.
According to NASA JPL’s Centre for NEO studies, as of now, there are about 900 near-Earth objects measuring more than 1 km. An impact from one of these NEOs can bring devastating effects to Earth. That is why scientists are working on a number of planetary protection initiatives to deflect asteroids.
Why Didymos is a threat?
Didymos is a binary asteroid which consists of two bodies, the primary one 780 meters in length and secondary body 160 meters in size. The size of secendory body have chances of posing a threat of collison with earth. So, it becomes a suitable target for NASA. NASA is planning to deal with this asteroid with its DART mission that is its first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique, where one or more high-speed aircraft are sent to intercept the path of an approaching near-Earth object
What is Dart mission?
In 2020, NASA announced the start of construction of DART aircraft. This mission aims to collide this aircraft with the secondary body of Didymos and change the orbital period by several minutes. Dart is equipped with onboard camera and autonomous navigation system. They are planning to study this change in trajectory of asteroid under this mission.
After separation from the launch vehicle, DART will cruise for an year before intercepting Didymos' moonlet in late September 2022, when the Didymos system will be at a distance of 11 million kilometers from Earth. The kinetic deflection will be achieved as DART deliberately crashes against the moonlet. The crash will take place at a speed of approximately 6.6 km/s.
Conclusion
This mission is going to be first of its kind for NASA, so it is important for them. Also, it is going to be aired live worldwide makes it even more interesting. We hope that this mission become successful and any possible threat to earth gets removed.
