JACARTA (Lenteratoday) – The Air Force and Space Administration (NASA) said the unmanned spacecraft they flew into space to ward off the asteroid was declared a success.
Launching Channel News Asia on Wednesday (10/12/2022), Bill Nelson as NASA chief said this is the first time humans have changed the path of an asteroid.
“This is a pivotal time for planetary defense and an important time for humanity,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson.
It is known that the successful course change of this asteroid was made after the suicide test flight of the DART spacecraft on September 26, 2022.
After being piloted, through telescope observations, NASA explained that DART had successfully hit the asteroid.
The DART mission cost $ 330 million or Rp 4.9 trillion and was developed over seven years. DART is also the world’s first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.
The celestial target of the DART flight was an egg-shaped asteroid called Dimorphos, about the size of a football stadium, orbiting a parent asteroid about five times as massive as Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes.
The goal is to fly the DART impact vehicle directly over Dimorphos at a speed of approximately 22,531 km / h, creating enough force to move the moon’s orbital path closer to its larger companion.
Source: Business | Director: Arifin BH
