16-11-2021 | 17:21 PM
NASA’s DART MISSION
On November 24, NASA will launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
About DART Mission:
DART mission is NASA's first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor technology
The target of the spacecraft is a binary asteroid system called Didymos. In this system, Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos.
Missions like DART are essential to help us understand how to stop dangerous asteroids.
Objective of the Mission
The main aim of the mission is to test the newly developed technology that would allow a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid and change its course.
After the mission has collided with the asteroid, scientists will study its impact on the trajectory of the asteroid with a range of telescopes deployed on different regions of the planet.
Reason for Choosing Dimorphos:
The Didymos system is an eclipsing binary as viewed from Earth, meaning Didymos and Dimorphos pass in front of each other
Earth-based telescopes can study this variation in brightness to understand how long it takes Dimorphos to orbit Didymos.
Didymos's orbit does not intersect Earth's at any point in current predictions thus posing no threat to Earth.
