Artistic interpretation of NASA DART spacecraft - part of the first mission to demonstrate protective technology from the threat of asteroids
NASA is making new steps in terms of developing a spacecraft, which, at sizes not exceeding the standard refrigerator, will be able to reject asteroids dangerous for our planet.
It is already known that the DART ship will be developed by scientists from the Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Applied Physics. June 23, NASA approved the transition to the first stages of design.
DART will serve as a kinetic drummer - displaces the orbits of the asteroids. The blow would change the speed, and also entailed a change in the flight path. A test with a small and harmless asteroid is going to be carried out in 2024.
This technology will be an important proof that the Earth can protect itself from mortal danger. To complete the project, it is important to conduct an experiment on a real object and find out how it behaves in space.
Non-hazardous space stones land on our planet almost every day. Carrying the threat are less common. The first DART test is aimed at an object that will reach us at a distance in 2022, and then return in 2024. This is Didim (from the Greek - “twins”), represented by a double system of asteroids: A (half a mile) and B (530 feet). The device is going to work on a smaller object. The system has been monitored since 2003. The main object is an S-type rocky body. After launching, DART will go to Didim and hit the smaller body at a speed that is 9 times the bullet's flight. This will help to understand whether the kinetic method works.
Objects with a diameter of 0.6 miles are considered large enough to produce global effects. Approximately 93% of potentially dangerous space bodies have already been detected. DART will deal with the deflection of asteroids of intermediate size. They will not destroy the planet, but are capable of causing regional damage.
Since 2016, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office has been operating, which is responsible for tracking and studying potentially dangerous asteroids and comets.
