This unprecedented mission must allow humanity to learn to protect itself from a possible future threat. The head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, praised “a decisive moment for the planetary defense”.
Le Monde with AFP
The American space agency has managed to deflect an asteroid from its trajectory by projecting, at the end of September, a vessel against its surface during a unprecedented test mission, which should allow humanity to learn To protect yourself from a possible future threat, announced NASA , Tuesday October 11.
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The Dart mission vessel (for double asteroid redirection test, “redirection test of a double asteroid”) had deliberately struck its target, the asteroid Dimorphos, which is the satellite of a larger asteroid named Didymos . The NASA apparatus managed to move it, by reducing its 32 -minute orbit, announced the head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, at a press conference, welcoming “a decisive moment for the planetary defense , and a decisive moment for humanity “.
a unique mission of” planetary defense “
It would have already been “considered a huge success [if the ship] had only reduced the orbit by about 10 minutes, but he actually reduced it by 32 minutes,” he added. With this mission, “NASA has proven that we were serious as defenders on the planet,” he said.
Dimorphos, located some 11 million kilometers from the earth at the time of the impact, measures approximately 160 meters in diameter and represents no danger for our planet. If the goal remains relatively modest compared to the catastrophe of science fiction films like Armageddon, this unprecedented mission of “planetary defense”, called Dart (Dart means “dart”, in English), is the first to test such a technique. It allows NASA to train for the day an asteroid would threaten to hit the earth.