What is NASA’s upcoming DART Mission all about?
The US space agency NASA is ready to launch a mission on space known as the DART Mission. The scheduled date is 23rd November, 2021. In an official Tweet on 24th October, the officials had stated that the mission’s objective is to crash a spacecraft against an asteroid. Here is all you need to know about DART Mission.
DART Mission: What is it actually?
Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART in short is a mission by NASA that will examine various methods to shift an asteroid’s trajectory in the space. This mission is supposed to help the scientists understand how to stop an earth-bound asteroid from colliding against the planet’s surface. For this mission, NASA has chosen the powerful spacecraft SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that is scheduled to be launched from a California airbase known as Vandenberg Space Force Base.
What is DART’s exact target?
NASA is preparing to target an asteroid that is already heading towards earth and is not that far away. The asteroid called Didymos is approximately 780 metres in diameter and is constantly under the watch of NASA’s astrophysicists. It is also said to have a secondary body, whose diameter is approximately 160 metres.
How will the mission be carried out?
This is the first time NASA or any other space agency will try out a mission like this. The DART Mission will use a method called kinetic impactor technique in which an enormous sized object like a spacecraft with its high velocity will be launched in the way of an actively moving asteroid. This first-generation mission aims to change the path of an asteroid. If successful, this mission will be launched time and again to completely prevent any asteroid from striking the earth.
The NASA authorities have further explained that the spacecraft will have an in-built camera known as Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera (DRACO) manufactured by OpNav, whose software will closely detect and assess the asteroid’s trajectory and will target it accordingly at an approximate speed of 6.6 km/s. According to the mission’s scientists, this collision is at first supposed to slow down the orbital speed of the secondary body by minutes, followed by reduction in its primary body speed by fractions; and in turn shift the entire trajectory of the asteroid by modifying its overall speed and duration.