NASA DART (Asteroid Kill Probe)

2022: Spacecraft purposefully crashed into asteroid 11 million km from Earth and knocked it off course

At the end of September 2022, the NASA spacecraft (DART mission, from Double Asteroid Redirection Test) successfully crashed into the asteroid Dimorf at a distance of 10.9 million km from Earth, moving at a speed of 22.5 thousand km/h. The last pictures that the device managed to show are the approaching surface of a rocky cosmic body. NASA launched its DART spacecraft in November 2021.

DART is a cube weighing about 600 kg with sensors, an antenna, an ion engine, two 8.5 m solar panels and a DRACO camera. At the NASA Mission Control Center, experts observed the actions of DART in real time, according to Bloomberg. Video cameras showed how a cube-shaped impact vehicle, no larger than a vending machine with two rectangular solar panels, attacked the asteroid Dimorf. The second-by-second images of the asteroid grew larger and larger, and eventually filled the entire television screen. Then the DART signal was lost, confirming that the device crashed into an asteroid and "heroically" died, the agency said. This mission is the first aimed at protecting the Earth from the possibility of a dangerous collision with an asteroid.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test

This mission is the first demonstration of NASA's planetary defense initiative aimed at protecting the Earth from a possible dangerous collision with an asteroid. This particular asteroid, named Dimorphos, is not heading for our planet, but was chosen by NASA to test the deflection technique. If the measurements show that the asteroid's course has been changed at least a little, NASA will consider the mission successful.

A separate spacecraft launched with DART before the collision also captured images of the collision, and NASA said it would share those images in the coming days. The collision was also observed by various NASA telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.^[1]

2021: Launch of a kamikaze probe to shoot down asteroids in the United States

At the end of November 2021, the United States launched the first planetary defense mission of its kind for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, sending a space probe to an intentional collision with an asteroid. The Falcon 9 Raketa carrier with the DART space kamikaze probe launched from the Vandenberg Cosmodrome in California.

DART is a 610 kg spacecraft that will travel until September 2022 to a pair of asteroids named Didymos and Dimorphos. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland built the DTPA, and space company Redwire provided navigation and solar panels that will power the spacecraft as it flies to its target.

The goal of the mission is to collide with the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, at a speed of about 25 thousand km. per hour. Scientists will also need to analyze how the spacecraft impact itself will change the asteroid's trajectory. The DTPA mission will cost the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a total of $330 million, with SpaceX winning a $69 million launch contract in 2019. This expedition is not only NASA's first mission to protect the planet, but also SpaceX's first mission to launch a spacecraft to another planetary body.

It's just the coolest mission. Thank you all for allowing SpaceX to be part of a really important planetary defense mission. Our company will try to justify the trust placed in us by the state, "said Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX's civilian satellite launch director.

On November 19, 2021, SpaceX conducted a test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch to give an idea of ​ ​ the scale, the asteroid Dimorphos in size is approximately equal to the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the asteroid Didymos in diameter is larger than the height of the tower of the World Trade Center in New York. After arriving at the asteroids and before the collision with Dimorphos, the DTPA spacecraft will launch a small cube satellite to take photos of the collision event. Despite the mission testing the planetary protection method, NASA Assistant Administrator for Scientific Mission Management Thomas Zurbuchen stressed that NASA is not aware of any immediate risks to Earth. There are 3-5 billion asteroids and comets orbiting the sun, but few have a chance of hitting Earth before 3031.^[2]

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