In an extraordinary test intended to prevent potentially catastrophic collisions with Earth, a NASA spacecraft struck an asteroid.
At around 23:00 GMT on Monday, the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos, which is located around 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth. The DART camera captured images as the cube-shaped “impactor” vehicle, no bigger than a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays, careered into Dimorphos, an asteroid about the size of a football stadium. The test was broadcast live by the US space agency from the mission operations center outside Washington, DC.
Engineers in the control room cheered as images of the target asteroid grew larger second by second until they finally filled the TV screen of NASA’s live webcast, confirming the spacecraft had collided with Dimorphos. On the live video, a graphic read, “Impact confirmed for the world’s first planetary defense test mission.” The goal of the project was to see if a spaceship could nudge an asteroid just far enough off track to keep Earth safe by using pure kinetic force to change its trajectory.
Its success won’t be known until the conclusion of more ground-based telescope measurements next month. The mission coordination lead, Nancy Chabot, told Al Jazeera hours before the planned impact, “This is a tough test, and this is why we’re taking these first steps now to create this technology before we need it.” NASA flight directors have guided the DART spacecraft for the majority of its trip since its November 2018 launch from California. As the craft got closer to its destination, the excitement increased.
Mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the US state of Maryland tweeted, “It’s the final cosmic collision countdown.” Although the asteroid did not pose a threat to Earth, the test is the first attempt to alter an asteroid’s trajectory only through kinetic force. Scientists believe that this technique may one day be used to nudge asteroids and avert catastrophic catastrophes. If this is successful, Tanya Harrison, a fellow at the Outer Space Institute in Seattle, said to Al Jazeera, “We know we can use the same technology to deflect asteroids that would pose an actual hazard later on.” Images from the last approach and crash were transmitted by a camera.
The target was an asteroid “moonlet” called Didymos, which orbits an asteroid that is about five times larger. According to NASA scientists and planetary security specialists, the Didymos duo are excellent test subjects due to their size because smaller asteroids are more frequent and hence a higher threat shortly. Additionally, their dual asteroid configuration and relative closeness to Earth make them excellent candidates for the DART’s first proof-of-concept mission.
The DART team wants to reduce Dimorphos’ orbital path by 10 minutes, but they would consider a reduction of 73 seconds to be sufficient evidence that the technique can be used to divert asteroids. The project is expected to cost around $330 million, which is far less than many of NASA’s more expensive space missions. The most current NASA mission, DART, is aimed at examining asteroids, stony objects left over from the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.
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