NASA Successfully Launches DART Satellite At Asteroid Dimorphos To Change Its Course

 

In works of science fiction, various methods are used to change the course of asteroids that are detected to hit the earth. In the popular movie Armageddon for example, a nuclear bomb is drilled into an asteroid to break it up safely before it hits the earth. But efforts to develop a defense system for the earth from asteroids have been developed by NASA through the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

This morning the DART satellite was successfully launched onto the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos which is located 11 million kilometers from the earth. The vending machine-sized DART crashed 17 meters from its original target on the stadium-sized surface of Dimorphos.

This is just the first phase of the DART mission, with scientists monitoring whether an impact at 24,000 km/h could change Dimorphos course. The data collected through the DART mission is expected to be used to build a defense system for the earth from asteroids that may arrive in the future. Science fiction sending oil rig workers into space may not happen but robots may be sent like in the movie Don't Look Up.