NASA plans next year to push the spacecraft flying at a speed of 24 thousand kilometers an hour, about the asteroid during the test of “planetary protection”. This is reported in a press release on phys.org.
DART ASTEROID REDIRECTION TEST project is intended to answer the question whether the collision of the apparatus with an asteroid is an effective way to reject the courtyard of the celestial body that can threaten the earth in the future. According to NASA, the cost of the mission will be $ 330 million.
Dart Spaceship will be launched on board the Spacex Falcon 9 at 22:20 on the Pacific, November 23 from the base of the Vdenberg cosmic forces in California. If the launch takes place at this time, the collision with the asteroid will occur from September 26 to October 1 of the next year at a distance of about 11 million kilometers from the ground.
The goal is an asteroid dimorphos with a diameter of about 160 meters and rotating around the larger asteroid of Didimos. Although none of these celestial bodies threatens Earth, they are ideal candidates because of the possibility of observing them with the help of land telescopes.
Although the spacecraft does not destroy the asteroid, it can change its orbit slightly, the period of which is now 11 hours 55 minutes. The test is designed to help scientists understand which impulse is necessary to reject the asteroid if one day he will go to the ground.