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NASA: collision with spaceship should divert asteroid

2021-11-05T14:01:52.746Z


What to do if an asteroid is on a collision course with the earth? NASA is now testing a defensive maneuver in space for the first time. A special spaceship is supposed to throw an asteroid moon off course.


Read the video transcript here

Can we change the course of an asteroid heading for Earth?

NASA researchers want to find out for the first time with the help of a mission in space, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

Appropriate abbreviation: darts.

Lindley Johnson, NASA Defense Officer:

"This is a test.

Nature has given us a double asteroid that appears near Earth so that we can observe it from observatories on Earth. "

A space probe of the space agency is to target the asteroid Didymos on November 24th, which is orbited by its mini moon Dimorphos.

The dart spaceship then deliberately steers into the smaller boulders at a speed of around 6.6 kilometers per second.

The collision will change the speed of Dimorphos by a fraction of a percent, but its orbital time by several minutes.

Enough to be measured by NASA with telescopes on Earth.

If everything goes as planned.

Elena Adams, NASA systems engineer:

“We can't really predict the steering angle on Dimorphos. We know how we're going to hit him in his trajectory - we hit him head-on. And we know where the sun will be at that point in time. But the problem is, we can't tell whether there will be a boulder or not. Our angle of attack on Dimorphos is therefore really uncertain at the moment and will depend on what Dimorphos actually looks like. And we'll only know that in the last, let's be honest, the last 20 seconds before the impact. "

The larger boulder Didymos has a diameter of about 780 meters, its moon Dimorphos is about 160 meters tall.

From a purely statistical point of view, this corresponds more to the size of asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

According to the DART team, the targeted double asteroid does not represent a specific threat.

Lindley Johnson, NASA Defense Officer:

“It's just a test.

We don't want to see an asteroid hit Earth and then have to find out if it works.

We want to know how the spacecraft works and how the asteroid reacts to the impact before we get into such a situation. "

The researchers will know in a year at the earliest whether the power of a spaceship about 19 meters long and weighing 360 kilograms will actually be sufficient to deflect an asteroid of this size.

The dart ship is scheduled to reach Dimorphos and Didymos in the autumn of next year.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-11-05

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