Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
National Institute of Aeronautics and Space Research (EIGHT) Rhorom Priyatikanto explained that currently Indonesia does not have the technology to actively mitigate the fall asteroid in the territory of Indonesia.
Early mitigation of celestial bodies is needed to save humanity from the threat of an asteroid impact.
“There is no active mitigation step that Indonesia has taken independently,” said LAPAN researcher Rhorom Priyatikanto to CNNIndonesia.com, Friday (19/3).
Furthermore, he explained that the mission to prevent the asteroid disaster was not a single country concern. However, he said, this is a joint obligation of all countries.
Rhorom said there are missions that are currently focused on mitigating asteroids that have the potential to hit Earth. The mission was initiated by the United States Space Agency (NASA) called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
The mission is being prepared to prevent an asteroid collision with Earth. The target, the vehicle will approach the twin asteroid Didyamos to try to deflect the asteroid’s trajectory by crashing itself.
“There is a DART mission that is being prepared. The target is that the spacecraft will approach the twin asteroid Didymos in September 2022 and try to deflect the asteroid’s trajectory by crashing itself,” he said.
According to Rhorom, the asteroid is not a type of asteroid that is potentially dangerous to Earth. But he said the asteroid was chosen for the technology test.
Cited the official website NASA, DART is a test driven technology to prevent the impact of an asteroid on Earth. This mission will be the first demonstration of a technique to change the motion of asteroids in space.
In this mission, DART uses a spacecraft being flown to crash into a target at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second.
The unmanned aircraft is equipped with a state -of -the -art autonomous system accompanied by an on board camera by the name of Draco.
Previously, world astronomers had created mitigation scenarios when an asteroid with a diameter of more than 140 meters was about to hit Earth.
Rhorom explained that at least twice a week there were asteroids hitting Earth’s atmosphere which later became meteors. Meteors are mostly small, called the average diameter of 50 cm, and rarely are very large.
The mitigation scenario, he said, includes intensive monitoring to the mission of deflecting the trajectory of the celestial body. A number of mitigation-related technologies are currently being tested by space agencies, one of which is the United States Space Agency (NASA).
(can / mik)
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