This is how the construction of a DART looks like, a vehicle that will collide with an asteroid

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NASA has published a footage showing the construction of a vehicle called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

With its help, the American and European Space Agency want to check whether the technologies currently available will be able to effectively neutralize the threat coming from the depths of space.

In many sci-fi movies, we have seen the terrifying vision of our civilization being destroyed by a cosmic rock.

In the past, giant asteroids led to global cataclysms that resulted in the decimation of many species of creatures on our planet, and if this happened now, the results would be dire.

The achievements of mankind could be lost in the blink of an eye, and we would technologically go back to the Middle Ages.

NASA and ESA, however, have a plan to prevent this from happening.

It has been in progress for several years, although this is not a topic that we will learn from the front pages of newspapers and websites. Scientists from around the world are jointly preparing a mission called Asteroid Impact and Deflectiona Assessment (AIDA).

As part of it, a special probe called Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM / HERA) and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) vehicle are being created, the purpose of which will be to fly to the asteroid Didymos (65803).

We have recently heard that ESA plans to send two more CubeSat microsatellites to the vicinity of the asteroids, in addition to the large HERA probe.

The task of these small, but technologically powerful devices will be to initially, but in detail, examine the objects, while the probe itself will observe the impact of a NASA vehicle on the asteroid and the subsequent reconnaissance of the entire event. The Dymos is actually two objects.

The main asteroid is 780 meters in diameter and also has a satellite 160 meters in diameter.

Meanwhile, NASA wants to hit the asteroid with a device called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

The asteroid Didymos in October 2022 will be approx. 11 million kilometers from Earth.

However, the mission is to start a year earlier.

The task of the device will be to hit the asteroid and change its trajectory so that it does not hit our planet. According to the plan, a 300 kilogram probe will hit the smaller asteroid at a speed of 6 km / s (22,000 km / h).

It will be the first mission in human history to test the so-called

space rock kinetic impact technology.

Didymos belongs to the Apollo group, i.e. objects that threaten our planet, which is why it is such a great object for astronomers to research on creating the Earth's protection system.

The impact is expected to change the orbit of the asteroid by a few millimeters.

It seems little, but it is enough to change the trajectory over a distance of millions of kilometers of its flight that the object will bypass the Earth.The Planetary Science Journal reports that when the probe hits the surface of the asteroid, material will be ejected into space

rock, the stream of which will head towards our planet.

Meteoroids bursting into the atmosphere can create a breathtaking spectacle of shooting stars.

Let's just hope that large rocks do not fall to Earth, because if this happens over metropolises, they can lead to a cataclysm. NASA announced that SpaceX will join one of the most daring missions in human history, worth 69 million dollars.

The role of Elon Musk's people will be to successfully launch the vehicle into space with a Falcon-9 rocket.

The launch is to take place in June 2021 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that the AIDA mission is successful and that scientists can achieve their goals.

The peaceful future of our existence on the Blue Planet will depend on this.



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