SpaceX will assist NASA's first-ever mission to redirect an asteroid

[editor]

This should be a #1 priority given that the future of the entire planet could rely on it, but humans aren't that smart, really.

NASA has chosen SpaceX to help out on its first-ever attempt to deflect an asteroid. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will blast off on a Falcon 9 rocket in June 2021 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Its mission: To smash a satellite into the Didymos asteroid's small moon in a bid to knock it off its orbit. What sounds like the plot of a Michael Bay movie could turn out to be NASA's first line of defense against Earth-bound asteroids.

This is batting practice. But the stakes are still high: Failure could derail NASA's so-called "kinectic impactor technique," success will provide the crucial data that will inform its deployment against an actual asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

NASA plans to intercept Didymos when it's within 11 million kilometres (7 million miles) of our planet -- in comparison, the moon is 240,000 miles and the sun is 93 million miles away. According to the DART website, the probe won't reach its target until October 2022, upon which it will slam into Didymos' moon at a speed of nearly 13,500 mph (6 kilometers per second).

The total cost for the mission is expected at around $69 million including the launch service, which NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage. Fresh off the back of its successful Falcon Heavy launch and triple landing, SpaceX's involvement in DART sees its relationship with NASA evolving beyond its commercial payloads and resupply missions to the ISS. As usual, Elon Musk shared his reaction in a tweet: "Thanks on behalf of the SpaceX team. We NASA!"

SpaceX will assist NASA's first-ever mission to redirect an asteroid

 

[Limejuice]

"Batting practice."

 

[Throbbing Angel]

'batting practice'

#We'reAllFucked

 

[HAL9000]

Europe Officially Signs on for Asteroid-Smashing Effort

The Hera spacecraft will observe the effects of a NASA probe's high-speed crash into an asteroid.

Europe has confirmed its participation in humanity's first full-on planetary-defense demo.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has officially approved the Hera mission, which will assess the results of NASA's asteroid-walloping Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

DART is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in July 2021 and reach the Didymos two-asteroid system in October 2022. The NASA probe will then slam into "Didymoon," the 540-foot-wide (165 meters) satellite of the 2,540-foot-wide (775 m) space rock Didymos.

Europe Officially Signs on for Asteroid-Smashing Effort | Space

 

[Fez909]

This happens on Monday, btw.

NASA gears up to deflect asteroid, in key test of planetary defense

Bet the dinosaurs wish they'd thought of this.

phys.org

edit: no it doesn't, this is another thing.

Where's the DART thread?

edit2: yes it does! this is the DART thread it seems.

 

[T & P]

Looking forward to it! BBC piece here:

Nasa spacecraft lining up to smash into an asteroid

The Dart mission will test a technique for defending the Earth against hazardous space rocks.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[weltweit]

It'll need to be more substantial than a dart I recon.

 

[weltweit]

Where is Bruce ?

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Will they play areosmith during the impact?

 

[WouldBe]

I foresee 1sqashed probe and zero deviation to the asteroid.

 

[magneze]

Any chance it's actually redirected into the path of the Earth?

 

[2hats]

No chance.

​

 

[2hats]

DART smart navigation locked on target. JWST observations underway.

 

[Fez909]

Assuming it hits, when will we know if the trajectory of the asteroid has changed?

 

[2hats]

Precision locked.

We might know within a few days, but it should be more apparent after a few weeks of observations (light curve determined).

 

[Throbbing Angel]

'Looks to me like we're headed straight in'

 

[Fez909]

Boom

 

[2hats]

Impact!

​

 

[Fez909]

Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), is a 6-unit CubeSat of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). LICIACube is a part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and is built to carry out observational analysis of the Didymos asteroid binary system after DART's impact. It will communicate directly with Earth, sending back images of the ejecta and plume of DART's impact as well as do asteroidal study during its flyby of the Didymos system from a distance of 55.3 km (34.4 mi), 165 seconds after DART's impact.

Wonder when we'll see that

 

[2hats]

Wonder when we'll see that

In the next couple of days (I think I read somewhere).

e2a: It's possible that there may be an opportunity to downlink them overnight.

2e2a: Mission manager mentioned 24-48 hours.

 

[2hats]

Initial amateur-class (30cm and 12cm) imagery of the impact captures a debris cloud, hinting that the professional kit might deliver some fairly spectacular results in due course.

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[Epona]

Search for NASA Dart on google, google have a special animated thing for the search results page.

Watched the live stream, it was very interesting.

 

[2hats]

0.5m ATLAS survey telescope.

ATLAS Project (@fallingstarIfA)

ATLAS observations of the DART spacecraft impact at Didymos!

nitter.it

View attachment ATLAS-DARTr.mp4

 

[2hats]

Wonder when we'll see that

In a few hours perhaps...

View attachment LICIACube.mp4​

 

[gosub]

NASA's DART spacecraft successfully slams into asteroid in historic test of planetary defense

Data from the test will not only demonstrate whether the idea works, but also help NASA understand how it could be applied in the future.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[editor]

 

[2hats]

Initial quick look JWST NIRCam images (before and after, exhibiting a dust/debris cloud).

​

 

[2hats]

LICIACube impact images released.

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Alexandra Witze (@alexwitze)

First @LICIACube images of the #DARTMission impact are out.

nitter.it

 

[weltweit]

We need to get Dart back, it's probably only a bit bent out of shape, stick it in a vice and wallop it with a mallet, she'll be right ..

 

[2hats]

Interesting streamer dynamics (filaments) observed in the debris cloud - for example the LICIACube imagery.

​

This has seen before, eg in the Hayabusa2 SCI/Ryugu impacts.

These might arise from "granular collapse": inelastic collisions collapse the debris field into these filaments where electrostatics no longer dominate (particles too big ie gravel, relatively small rocks) but gravitation does not yet play a significant role (particles too small as insufficient accretion). More details:

Dr. Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill)

I’m shocked by the streamers in the ejecta. In ordinary granular splash experiments we see nothing like this. A few musings about this in a thread… /1

nitter.it

Now this phenomena could change the behaviour simulated by this research, but it might be worth keeping an eye out for an uptick in bright meteors around 10-24 Oct and again, two years later, around Oct-Dec 2024.

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DOI:10.3847/PSJ/ab75bf.