Before hitting Earth, NASA will find the asteroid and then change its course

Writer: Arif Budianto

KONTAN.CO.ID – Before hitting Earth, NASA plans to find the asteroid first and then change the direction of its orbit. This step will be realized through the latest NASA DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test).

Disasters don’t just come from within the Earth. In fact, from outer space there is an asteroid that threatens and does not know when it will hit Earth.

It is difficult to predict its arrival, even recently an asteroid slid past our planet unnoticed. This is of course a threat that should be watched out for in the future.

Therefore, NASA reportedly plans to dispel asteroids before they come and approach Earth. The good news is that NASA has found no asteroids that threaten Earth during its decades of searching.

However, to prevent and at the same time guard, related parties always have a backup plan.

Quote from Space, NASA recently shared a video which explains “What if an asteroid on its way crashes into Earth”

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In video that, Dr. Kelly Fast as an expert from NASA Planetary Defense explained about what if this happened.

“It’s important to find asteroids before they find us, in this case we have to get to them before they hit us,” said Fast.

According to NASA, an asteroid collision is the only natural disaster that can be prevented. NASA’s Office of the Planetary Defense Coordination is supporting the project to find the asteroid and calculate its orbit far into the future.

Taking into account everything that might happen in the future, they hope to change the asteroid’s path so that it doesn’t point toward Earth.

This is in line with NASA’s upcoming launch of DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The spacecraft will hit a smaller asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid to see if its maneuver changes direction so that it orbits closer.

Measurements in the moon’s orbit will be made to see if its path shifts. The DART launch project is also a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The ultimate goal of the mission is to test the potential of asteroid diversion technology if this tiny space rock is on a path that threatens Earth.

In addition to this DART mission, NASA also has several other past and present missions to study asteroids and comets. This study isn’t just about asteroid diversion, it’s also about figuring out how these tiny bodies fit into the evolution of the solar system.

Speaking of asteroids, here are some NASA missions related to asteroids:

• NASA – LUcy mission to study Trojan asteroids in Jupiter orbit (Launched October 16, 2021)
• NASA – Psyche mission to study near metal asteroids (Launching in 2022)
• NASA – The OSIRIS-REx mission visits the asteroid Bennu to sample it and bring it to Earth (Launching in 2023)