One spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid 17.7 million kilometers from Earth sent back its first photo from space. The dual asteroid redirection test (DART) is currently underway on an Armageddon-type mission from NASA.
Its goal is to test technology that could defend the Earth from potentially catastrophic asteroids in the future. The spacecraft opened its “eye” and took the photos two weeks after launching from a base in California in November and now we can get a taste of its voyage.
At a distance of about 3.2 million kilometers from Earth, the slightly pixelated shot was made possible using the DRACO telescopic camera on board.
The first image from the boat
Invaluable material from DART
Scientists have been able to spot about a dozen stars near the intersection of the constellations of Perseus, Aries and Taurus.
But DART is not going to reach its final destination before September 2022, so we can expect more photos during its long journey.
If the mission proves successful, it could pave the way for a new planetary defense system that can deflect incoming space rocks before a possible collision.
The plan reflects the plot of Hollywood’s great success “Armageddon”, where NASA sends a spaceship to an asteroid to stop its journey to Earth.
DART flies to the binary asteroid Gemini near Earth, which is about 740 meters wide and is located between the orbits of Earth and Mars. But it will not only have this goal. Instead, NASA’s fearless ram will target a smaller asteroid orbiting Gemini.
DART will crash the space rock at a speed of 24,000 km / h in an attempt to change its orbit.
After the DART crashes into its target, NASA and ESA telescopes on Earth will check if the design has worked. A tiny cubesat launched in parallel with the mission will collect data before, during and after the impact.
Space experts have already identified at least 26,000 so-called “near-Earth objects”. It is estimated that 4,700 of them meet the NASA Classification as “Potentially Dangerous Objects”.
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