With the support of SpaceX, the NASA DART module was launched into space. The spacecraft will crash into an asteroid, and mankind can rely on historic meteorites.
DART (from. Dual redirect test with asteroids) NASA’s mission is to test man’s ability to change the course of small space objects. As the creators mentioned, they already exist 23 known asteroidsIt may collide with Earth for the next 100 years. Aim: To ensure that we can save humanity from disaster.
On the plane on Wednesday Falcon 9 missiles Launched a rocket ship that allows training in kinetic energy technology to change the orbit of the asteroid. Honestly, the car will hit the body trying to change the direction of the flight.
Will be checked on Asteroid DemorphosIt orbits the largest asteroid, Didymus. The mission will be successful if the orbit of the asteroid can be shortened by a few minutes. It remains to be seen whether the mission will be completed as planned within the next 10 months. The second test, the most interesting from a technical point of view, takes place in parallel.
Ion unit and artificial meteorite
NASA will test the next generation as well Ionic unit, NEXT-C (NASA-Commercial Evolutionary Xenon Engine). Like any such engine, the carrier medium is, of course, an ion driven by an electromagnetic field, which is made up of solar cells. Performance is different.
According to scientists, the NEXT-C engine is three times more powerful than its predecessor, NSTAR. It is estimated that the DART ship will speed up Approximately 6.8 km / s. At this speed, the unit will crash into the asteroid next fall. Meanwhile, the erupted debris will fall to Earth and become the first artificial meteorite.
Image Source: Unsplash (Fernando Rodriguez)
Text source: NASA, ed. King
Prone to fits of apathy. Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Internet advocate. Avid travel enthusiast. Entrepreneur. Music expert.
