This month, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission collided with the 525-foot asteroid, Dimorphos. This landmark achievement marked a significant step forward for humanity in the realm of protecting our planet. The mission’s objective was to assess if purposefully causing this clash could potentially change the direction of the asteroid. The success of the test demonstrated the feasibility of this approach and the potential for defending ourselves against hazardous and potentially catastrophic asteroid impacts.
Deputy program manager, Elena Adams, called the mission a “bullseye,” with the spacecraft landing just 17 meters away from its intended target. Although it will take approximately two months to determine if the mission achieved its objective, everyone who worked on the project, as well as scientists all over the world, were excited by the outcome, which they called “ideal”.
Cheers in the Mission Control Room
Livestreamed footage showed the asteroid’s rocky surface looming into focus before the spacecraft collided, causing cheers to erupt in the mission control room. After the successful impact with Dimorphos was confirmed, NASA and Johns Hopkins University scientists hugged each other in celebration. NASA’s planetary science division director, Lori Glaze, called it a “new era of humankind” and stated that it ushered in a new era in planetary defence. Glaze was ecstatic, declaring:
What an amazing thing. We’ve never had that capability before.
Thanks to the mission’s success, humanity now has a better chance of protecting itself from potentially catastrophic asteroid collisions. The DART mission is a critical step in what NASA hopes will be a host of missions to protect our planet from things, such as asteroids. NASA’s Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) leads the charge on the agency’s planetary defence program, whose mission is to identify and track potentially hazardous asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.
NASA’s Ongoing Efforts
Whilst there is no known asteroid larger than 140 meters, or 459 feet, of crashing into Earth in the next 100 years, the reality is that not all of the asteroids have been identified as of yet. NASA’s ongoing efforts to develop and improve planetary defence technologies are crucial to the future of our planet. While redirecting an asteroid with a spacecraft is feasible, it remains uncertain how to accomplish this with larger or more hazardous asteroids. Some experts have proposed using nuclear weapons, but this approach presents its own challenges and risks.
The DART mission cost $325 million, and it was a resounding success, marking humanity’s first attempt at altering the trajectory of an asteroid. The spacecraft travelled over 6.8 million miles to rendezvous with Dimorphos, a moon of the larger asteroid Didymos. At a speed of 15,000 mph, the spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos with the force of 3 tons of TNT, a momentous event captured live on video.
This ground-breaking mission has brought us one step closer to planetary protection, potentially giving us the capability to defend ourselves against hazardous and potentially catastrophic asteroid impacts. As the world faces numerous challenges, the ability to protect ourselves from cosmic threats is more important than ever.
A Significant Milestone in Planetary Protection
The DART mission’s success represents a significant milestone in NASA’s planetary defence program, which has been working on developing and refining technologies to protect Earth since the late 1990s. In 1997, a previously unknown asteroid called “1997 XF11” was discovered, causing momentary panic that it could hit Earth in 2028. Although further observations showed that it would miss Earth, the event underscored the need for planetary defence technologies.
The DART mission’s success is cause for celebration and optimism, but it also highlights the need for continued efforts in developing and refining planetary defence technologies.