SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launches NASA’s DART: First Test Mission To Defend Planet Earth

[Grim Reaper 6]

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, launched Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Just one part of NASA’s larger planetary defense strategy, DART – built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland – will impact a known asteroid that is not a threat to Earth. Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes.

DART will show that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it – a method of deflection called kinetic impact. The test will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered. They will power both the spacecraft and NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster – Commercial ion engine, one of several technologies being tested on DART for future application on space missions.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launches NASA’s DART: First Test Mission To Defend Planet Earth (scitechdaily.com)

[diddyman68]

I haven't made my mind up about elon musk yet.good guy or evil villain genius.?

It would make good telly if he turned out to be a rogue bond style super villain though.

[Grim Reaper 6]

5 hours ago, diddyman68 said:

I haven't made my mind up about elon musk yet.good guy or evil villain genius.?

It would make good telly if he turned out to be a rogue bond style super villain though.

Well all I know for certain is there would not be a Space Program without him, or the up coming mission to Mars. I know he is very strange bird, I love to watch his interviews, that guy is a comedian and doesnt even try to be. 

Its like wow man this so psychedelic dude, I mean like flying around in space is really a trip man and I dont even need any Mushrooms its just too far out dude!!!!!!!!!

[+and-then]

I think it's a worthy goal but I wonder if they've considered the potential consequences.  If they impact this body and force it off its path, what's to stop it from interacting with some other body, possibly MUCH more dangerous a body, that will then come at us?  Oh well.  I guess we take them one at a time.  The most dangerous will be those that come out of the direction of Sol, and we never see it until it's too late.

[Eldorado]

NASA is preparing to hit a space rock with an aircraft at 23,000 kilometres per hour in order to avoid it from striking with Earth.

The £240 million mission is scheduled to launch in September, with modern tech being developed to launch a half-tonne spacecraft into an asteroid known as Dimorphos.

https://in.mashable.com/science/31438/nasa-to-launch-ps240-million-spacecraft-to-destroy-asteroids-thanks-to-netflix-film-dont-look-up

Dimorphos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimorphos

[Grim Reaper 6]

On 11/29/2021 at 8:16 PM, and then said:

I think it's a worthy goal but I wonder if they've considered the potential consequences.  If they impact this body and force it off its path, what's to stop it from interacting with some other body, possibly MUCH more dangerous a body, that will then come at us?  Oh well.  I guess we take them one at a time.  The most dangerous will be those that come out of the direction of Sol, and we never see it until it's too late.

You certainly make some great points, and this could create unforeseen problem in our future. But your comment above and I quote “ I guess we take them one at a time “ is absolutely true and there is no other way to approach this issue at this time.