NASA: ‘Dumping’ spacecraft into asteroids – breathtaking first planetary defense experiment – Newsbomb – News

Within the next few hours, US space agency It will hit an asteroid rocket for the first time in its history. NASA’s Dart mission wants to know how difficult it is to prevent a large space rock from hitting Earth.

The planetary “parade” is held about 11 million km away, For a target called “distorted”. NASA explains that the asteroid is not currently on a collision course with Earth, and there is no danger of it accidentally heading our way after the crash.

the influence Scheduled in the early hours of Tuesday (02.14 Greek time), with telescopes, among them the new James Webb Space Observatory, observing the historical moment from afar.

We’ve all seen to this day how Hollywood would do it, with brave astronauts and nuclear weapons thrown into battle. But how can Earth actually be protected from a deadly asteroid? NASA and we all will find out soon enough. The central idea is simply A spaceship collided with an asteroid.

The thinking is that it would only need to change the velocity of the rock by a tiny bit to change its course so that it misses the ground, assuming that happens much earlier. Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission (DART) He will test this theory by a near-direct collision with a 160-meter-diameter Dimorpho at over 20,000 km/h.

This means that it will have to change its orbit around one A much larger asteroid called “Gemini” Just a few minutes every day. NASA is promising some stunning images from the 570-kilogram Dart probe as it moved forward for the experimental ‘hit’.

“The Dart is The first planetary defense test mission which shows a spacecraft that collided with an asteroid to slightly change the position of that asteroid in space,” explained Dr. Nancy Chabot of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who is leading the mission for NASA.

“This is the kind of work, if necessary, that we would have done years ago to give the asteroid a little push and reposition in the future so that The Earth and the asteroid are not on a collision course.” He told BBC News.

Hitting the asteroid would be a huge challenge. And ear because in just the last 50 minutes or so, Dart will be able to distinguish its target from its 780-meter-wide “twin.” The navigation software must then adjust the spacecraft’s trajectory to achieve a direct hit.

“Because of the speed of light and the distances involved, it is really impossible to have a pilot on Earth controlling the spacecraft. Simply There is not enough time to respond.”said Dr. Tom Statler, a Dart program scientist at NASA. “We had to develop software that would be able to interpret the images taken by the spacecraft, figure out the correct target, and perform trajectory correction maneuvers by launching rockets.”

The wonderful pictures that will reach the earth

Dart will bring stunning visuals back to EarthAt a rate of one per second it is heading towards its “deep effect”. What appears at first glance as a point of light in the images will quickly grow to fill the entire field of view, before power is suddenly cut off when the spacecraft is destroyed.

Fortunately, this will not be the end of the story. The Dart carries an Italian-made 14kg (LiciaCube) spacecraft that was launched a few days ago. Its job is to record what happens when a crater dart opens. Its images, taken from a safe distance of 50 km, will be transmitted back to Earth in the coming days.

“The LiciaCube will pass about three minutes after the Dart collision,” said Simone Perrotta of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). “This timing was chosen to allow Complete development of the output cloud, Because one of LiciaCube’s most important contributions will be the documentation to support the measurement of parameters that confirm orbital aberration”

Currently, Dimorphos take about 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit Gemini. The impact is expected to change the momentum of the smaller object so that the orbital period is reduced to something in the order of 11 hours and 45 minutes. telescope measurements They will confirm this in the coming weeks and months.

If DART fails to find its target, it means it has too much fuel For another chance in two years To repeat his attempt on another space rock.

Surveys of the sky combined with statistical analyzes indicate that we have identified more than 95% of “monstrous asteroids” that could initiate global extinction if they collide with Earth (ss: they will not collide, their paths have been calculated and will not approach our planet). But this still leaves many little things that have yet to be discovered They can wreak havoc, Even on a regional scale for a city or a wider area.

An object like Dimorphos, if it hits the ground (which it won’t), can dig a hole perhaps one kilometer wide and a few hundred meters deep. The damage to the impact area will be severe. four years from now, European Space Agency (ESA) Three spacecraft – collectively known as the Hera mission – will be sent to Didymos and Demorphos for further studies.

Greek scientists will be involved in data analysis from the very first moment

“We must have preemptive technology,” says Dr. Cleomenes Tijanis, professor of astrophysics in the Department of Physics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, speaking to APE MPE radio station, Agency 104.9FM.

“Today’s experiment has historical significance. It is the first time that an attempt has been made to alter the course of a celestial body through human intervention. It has never been done,” comments the Greek professor of astrophysics, who urges even amateur astronomers with experience and valuable equipment to” try Locate Dimorphos and see if it will become brighter when the fragments from the explosion are illuminated by the sun and thus will become brighter for several hours after the impact!”

“Today is a big day. It is hoped that the DART spacecraft, which was launched last year in November on Tuesday morning, will hit this particular asteroid, which is about 160 meters high, and is the smallest of the two asteroids orbiting each other. At the same time…they are wandering around the sun in the distance.Based on the latest data,everything is going as it should,the camera with DART is working normally and has spotted even the largest asteroids,which will slowly and slowly guide them towards the end goal.All this while DART is going At a very high speed, 25,000 km / h, “explained Dr. Tijanis.” The team of the Greek professor, he revealed, will from the very beginning participate in the globally important scientific space experiment.

How Greece participates in the unique space project

“Our team here at AUTH is involved in the program part. For both the European DART and HERA program that follows in the analysis. For DART as well as for the European Mission ‘HERA’ (ss HERA) of the European Space Agency (ESA), we are experts in the interpretation of so-called phenomena The dynamics, that is, the motions of the objects. So we do a detailed simulation of how it’s in the system and moving before DART hits it and what we expect to happen after it arrives.” Obviously, once we have real data in a couple of weeks, we’ll have a better and smaller range of parameters that we’ll focus on Over the next year or two to understand exactly what DART was doing when it hit the asteroid.” Explains the Greek scientist when asked about the Greek contribution to this global mission of NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test).

The work of Dr. Tsigani and colleagues have to ensure “all possible transcripts, consistent with post-impact observations,” for the continuum. What Mr. Tijanis and his colleagues have been doing until today and will do after 2 a.m. helps “those who are building the instruments to be carried by the European HERA mission ship, to plan a monitoring strategy in order to improve the outcome”.

The significance of the mission and how we can see from Earth the “blow” against “Armageddon”

“It is important to show that we have this technology (which potentially saves the planet from a meteorite impact) and that what it will do we can repeat it if necessary at some point. This particular experiment is not something you can do every day,” says Dr. Kleumeni Tsigani.

At the same time, what is shocking to the wider public is that this crucial “blow” of a unique space mission, we will all be able to see. “For today and for those who stay awake, there will also be a live image from the craft’s camera trying to impact the asteroid. You’ll be able to see DART as it approaches the target as the image fades just 30 seconds before impact, separate live feed image of a drake (“dragon”) About the live show that is presented by NASA on NASA TV”, says the professor of astrophysics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki about the expected cosmic event in a few hours.