SpaceX launches a NASA probe to collide with an asteroid at high speed – IT Pro – News

The American space company SpaceX has successfully launched a launch that launched NASA’s DART mission. A SpaceX rocket has launched a probe that should collide with an asteroid at high speed next year.

The DART spacecraft, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was successfully launched from California by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It usually departs from Florida (with an eastern route), as it is closer to the equator. California was specifically chosen this time because it is more southerly oriented and from California there is less land on this stretch. The lowest missile stage is now too landed successfully on board a SpaceX drone ship; This is the ninety-fifth successful attempt to capture a booster missile and the seventy-second time it has occurred at sea.

It is assumed that the probe will hit the binary asteroid Didymos at the end of September or early October next year at a speed of more than 24 thousand km / h. Specifically, DART will collide with the smaller asteroid Dimorphos; This little rock is about Didymus. The goal of the mission is to show the kinematic effect with Dimorphos and change the binary orbit very slightly. The orbital period of the larger asteroid will be adjusted by a few minutes.

The spacecraft will impact the 160-meter-high moon Demorphos, which is expected to create a large crater and change its orbit around the 780-meter-high Didymus. This will be done at a distance of 11 million kilometers from Earth and at a speed of 6 kilometers per second.

This is done to learn more about changing the path of such objects. This could come in handy one day, because there are still a lot of things undiscovered Near Earth Objects 140 meters and larger. Objects of this size can be dangerous on Earth. The collision could be enough to cause such an object to lose sight of Earth.

The consequences of the collision will be determined using ground-based telescopes. In addition, the European Space Agency will launch a spacecraft that should reach the binary asteroid in 2026. This ESA. Hera’s mission The effect will be studied for at least six months. In addition, two small cubes The 10 cm volume has been edited for further investigation. One of these cubes will deploy a radar antenna to gain insight into the internal structure of asteroids.