As taken from the best science fiction movies, NASA plans to hit a spacecraft against an asteroid to deflect its course and to analyze the possibility of replicating the maneuver when a celestial object represents a problem for humanity.
The act responds to the fact that every year space agencies around the world identify several asteroids that pass at a close space distance to our planet. This implies a risk that may one day come to fruition and repeat itself like what happened 60 million years ago.
NASA’s space mission is called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection), the spacecraft will hit the celestial object in mid-2022.
Didymos A and Didymos B, are asteroids that are eleven million kilometers from Earth. NASA clarified that none of these represent a current risk to Earth.
“This is an exciting time we are going through and I think DART will do a great demonstration,” said Ed Lu, a retired NASA astronaut and founder of the B612 Foundation.
USD 313.9 million was allocated to the project, spread over eight years. This value covers the development of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and operations until the end of its primary mission in December 2022.
Following its launch in July of next year, DART will navigate space for about a year and then crash into the asteroid at a speed of approximately 24,000 km / h.
DART has a weight of 500 kilos, 1.14 meters wide, 1.24 meters high and 1.32 meters deep. NASA announced that it will be quite thorough with its work and that this does not end up against us: diverting the object towards Earth.
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