Mission success — Dart spacecraft knocked asteroid off trajectory

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Mission success — Dart spacecraft knocked asteroid off trajectory

Nasa says a mission to nudge a distant asteroid off course succeeded, showcasing a potential new method for saving Earth from dangerous space rocks that astronomers might identify in the future.

A Nasa spacecraft called Dart, which rammed the asteroid last month, was able to alter the trajectory of its moving target, officials at the space agency said Tuesday.

[Bloomberg]

 

[upup]

oeps, now it is on it's way to James Webb.

 

[Quicks]

Maybe we are the cause of another planet getting hit by the asteroid. Now let's hope it's not advanced alien come looking for revenge.

 

[Petec]

If they decide to smash an F-type asteroid, will they call that spacecraft "FART"?

 

[Athos]

247 years later NASA has lost its "Earth Defense" capabilities. After World War 4, due to nuclear winter, and massive loss of life, NASA is unable to build and launch an asteroid-intercepting space craft. Ironically, events set in motion 247 years earlier have put asteroid Dimorphos on a direct collision course with Earth.

That isn't all. Dimorphos' big brother Didymos (also sick of Earth's "sh*t") is coming along to exact revenge for what was done to his little bro 247 years earlier.

Nothing can be done as Earth and all of its remaining inhabitants are erased from the Cosmos.

The End.

 

[Death]

How long did it take DART to arrive at the asteroid from launch? If the asteroid is bigger than a football stadium, do we send up car sized ship to crash into it? Do we just keep scaling up the size of the ship dependent on sizes of the asteroids?
We've been surprised many a time before of an asteroid near missing earth that nobody picked up on until it's fly by. So perhaps also some focus (if not already) needs to be put into place to do a better job of looking out for them.

 

[Swa]

Maybe we are the cause of another planet getting hit by the asteroid. Now let's hope it's not advanced alien come looking for revenge.

What I came to say. Just think about all those poor troglodytes who will never know what it is to live in cities and watch reruns of the Stardashians.

 

[Fulcrum29]

So... which distant civilization is it going to destroy now? Well done humans.

 

[Cray]

So... which distant civilization is it going to destroy now? Well done humans.

 

[j4ck455]

Dimorphos never posed a risk to Earth, but was merely a target asteroid to showcase this deflection technique.

Until its new trajectory causes it to collide with something else that in turn heads for Earth (and wasn't going to before NASA tempted fate).

 

[Wut]

@Cosmik Debris Weren't you saying it was impossible in the previous threads?

 

[Cosmik Debris]

@Cosmik Debris Weren't you saying it was impossible in the previous threads?

No, I said it was pointless as there have only ever been 5 detections of near earth misses out of the thousands that happen annually.

 

[dualmeister]

 

[Wut]

 

[rvZA]

 

[AntennaMan]

 

[Gordon_R]

The asteroids are fighting back: