NASA’s DART Mission To Intentionally Crash Satellite – IOTW Report

NASA’s DART Mission To Intentionally Crash Satellite

UPI

NASA plans to launch a spacecraft as early as Nov. 23 and crash it into an asteroid next year so scientists can try to understand how to redirect dangerous space objects away from potential catastrophic Earth collisions.

The mission is NASA’s first flight demonstration for planetary defense, space agency officials said.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is scheduled for launch at 10:20 p.m. PST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The launch window is instantaneous, meaning it must launch at that time or wait for another day, according to NASA.

The Didymos asteroid system, actually twin bodies circling each other, will be near Earth for months, so the mission has 84 days to launch for an arrival at the binary asteroid between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1. More

10 Comments on NASA’s DART Mission To Intentionally Crash Satellite

  1. We just might notice something large enough to cause an Extinction Level Event, but that would be too large to influence.

    Something like put that hole in Arizona (that has a gift shop) we’ll never see coming.

    And if it’s a comet, well, that’s a whole other thing.

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  2. Is Vegas giving odds they crash one into the other and send it hurtling towards Earth?

    Not sure if I’m more concerned with the genetic tinkering or the celestial tinkering (includes Bill Gates and his solar cloud).

    I can do without both sets in my life.

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  3. “At least NASA has experience at crashing stuff. This isn’t cutting edge technology for them.”

    Most NASA crashes are announced by “LOS” (Loss of Signal). They do indeed have experience, but experience in a certain area is often without intent.

    It would take forever (and the audience here would die from boredom) but these numerous probes NASA has delivered and deployed on Mars are epic volumes of doing EVERYTHING right.

    Almost no one picking their nose today knows exactly how difficult a successful mission like that is.

    I don’t know all the aspects, but I have a work history in things that just go fast, go someplace specific, then explode. And all that was on this planet.

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  4. The prior administration did everything they could to put us where we are today. Have them work with NASA & it would probably hit your house or your neighbor’s house.

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