NASA successfully crashed its satellite into an asteroid in first planetary defense test

News, US September 27, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

In its first successful demonstration of planetary defense, NASA’s ‘suicidal’ spacecraft collided with an asteroid on September 26, 2022, to push it off its course in the first-ever planetary defense test.

NASA’s Double Asteroids Redirection Test or DART project was launched to counter the Earth-threatening asteroids by plowing specially designed spacecraft into them. The first of such tests were successfully carried out after months of preparations as NASA’s specially designed spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, about 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth.

NASA aired live coverage of the event from its mission operations center outside Washington D.C. The event was streamed live on the U.S. space agency’s TV, website, and social media pages. The live stream showed moments leading up to the impact.

The DART probe’s sole instrument, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) was sending back approximately one image per second as it approached the target.

Mission benefits all humanity

The mission was aimed at slightly changing the orbit of the space rock called Dimorphos (160 meters in diameter) around its parent asteroid Didymos (780-meter) just enough to prove scientists could deflect a dangerous asteroid if one was headed for Earth.

DART represents important progress in protecting our planet from potential impacts. “At its core, DART represents an unprecedented success for planetary defense, but it is also a mission of unity with a real benefit for all humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “As NASA studies the cosmos and our home planet, we’re also working to protect that home, and this international collaboration turned science fiction into science fact, demonstrating one way to protect Earth.”

*^{NASA DART spacecraft to alter the orbit of Dimorphos by ramming into the space rock. (Image Credit: JHUAPL/NASA)}*

The DART spaceship was launched on November 24, 2021, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and spent most of its time journeying towards the asteroid. Its target was a minor planet moon Dimorphos, a small asteroid (about 525 feet or 160 meters in diameter) the size of a football field.

DART spacecraft weighed around 610 kg and it was equipped with a 20 cm aperture star tracker camera. The project costs around $330 million, and the probe was solely built to be destroyed; hence it did not carry any high-tech scientific equipment.

The probe was programmed to make an impact at speed of 6.6 km/s. The collision produced a high change in the velocity that produced a small change in the trajectory of the asteroid. In the long run, such a small change would push the asteroid totally off of its course. So far it is uncertain to accurately predict that how much of a change in the trajectory the probe produced upon impact and what new course the asteroid shall take after the impact.

Although DART is mainly a NASA project, several other space tech companies and laboratories came together to make the project a testable reality. SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was tasked to carry the probe into outer space and maneuver it into the course of hitting the asteroid.

Apart from SpaceX, John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratories (APL) provided technical support throughout the project. Several international contributors also played their part in the making of the DART probe, including the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA Japan).