NASA Is Getting Ready, to Smash a Spacecraft, Into an Asteroid .
On September 26, NASA will
intentionally slam a golf cart-sized
spacecraft into a tiny asteroid.
At the time of impact,
the bullet-like spacecraft will be
traveling at 14,000 miles per hour.
At the time of impact,
the bullet-like spacecraft will be
traveling at 14,000 miles per hour.
'Business Insider' reports that
the mission is humanity's first test of our
ability to deflect dangerous asteroids.
Currently, NASA is aware of the location and orbit of about 28,000 local asteroids.
In November 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The $308 million spacecraft has since traveled
6.8 million miles to reach Dimorphos, a small
asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos.
DART's mission is to nudge
the space rock into a slightly tighter
orbit around its companion asteroid.
I'm highly confident that we
are going to hit on Monday and that
there will be a complete success, Lindley Johnson, NASA's first planetary
defense officer, via 'Business Insider'.
DART's Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera
for Optical navigation (DRACO) will capture
one image per second to document the impact.
We are excited for what
DRACO will reveal about Didymos
and Dimorphos in the hours and
minutes leading up to impact, Carolyn Ernst, DRACO instrument
scientist at APL, via 'Business Insider'.
NASA will livestream the images captured by
the spacecraft on its website beginning
at 5:30 p.m. ET on September 26.