| NASA’s ‘Double Asteroid Orbital Correction Experiment (DART)’ spacecraft, launched in November last year, collided with the target asteroid Dimorphus on the morning of September 27 Korean time after more than 10 months of flight. after the breakdown process. NASA live video capture |
NASA’s “turning point” for protecting the Earth
Earth Asteroid Collision Countermeasures
It has been confirmed that the first human experiment to modify the trajectory of the asteroid by colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid at risk of colliding with Earth has been successful.
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced on the 11th (local time) that it had confirmed the change in the orbit of the asteroid Dymorphus as a result of the ‘Dual Asteroid Orbital Correction Experiment’ (DART). This is the first time that people have changed the movement of a celestial body.
NASA Director Bill Nelson held a briefing at NASA headquarters in Washington on the same day and explained that “DRAT has been shortened[cyfnod orbitol yr asteroid]from 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 23 minutes.” In particular, the shorter orbital period was measured to be 32 minutes, which is more than the 10 minutes originally estimated by NASA. According to Reuters, the aim of the experiment to correct the asteroid’s orbit and prevent it from colliding with Earth has actually been achieved, Reuters reported.
“This is a turning point for protecting the planet, and a turning point for humanity,” Nelson said. “We’ve been imagining this for years, and it’s finally become a reality,” said Tom Statler, DART program scientist.
The asteroid Dymorphus, the size of a football field with a diameter of 160m, orbits Didymos, which means twins in Greek, at intervals of 11 hours and 55 minutes. The vending machine-sized DART spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at the end of November last year collided at a speed of 22,530 kilometers per hour (6.25 kilometers per second) with Dymorphos, which is about 11.2 million kilometers from Earth on the 26th last
The DART spacecraft weighs 570 kg, and Dimorphos weighs 5 billion kg. NASA expected that the kinetic energy produced during the impact would change the asteroid’s orbit by 1%. The DART spacecraft made final course adjustments about 90,000 km away four hours before the collision and switched completely to the ‘SMART navigation’ flight system, relying entirely on the camera to find the target without the instructions of the management team.
The scene where the spacecraft collided with an asteroid and what followed were filmed by an Italian briefcase-sized cube, LICIACube. The Lysia Cube, manufactured by the Italian Space Agency, fell off the main ship on the 11th, 15 days before the collision, and flew independently, recording the DART spacecraft experiment.
Didymos and Dymorphus are classified as near-Earth objects (NEOs) that approach Earth within 48 million kilometers, but there is no risk of a collision with Earth, and this collision test will not change that possibility, says NASA. The results will be used to develop a strategy to protect the Earth from asteroids approaching the Earth’s collision course by improving the computer model prepared through collision experiments in the laboratory.
 |
The success of this experiment, which cost about 300 million dollars (420 billion won), is evaluated to have laid the foundation for a countermeasure to save mankind from the catastrophe of an asteroid collision with the Earth. Currently, there are more than 1 million asteroids of various sizes, shapes and components in the solar system, and NASA has a list of about 30,000 asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more, which are the most dangerous.
Reporter Park Joon-hee
