Using SpaceX support, NASA launched the DART module into space. The study will hit an asteroid and humanity can rely on the historic meteor shower.
DART (from. Dual redirection test with asteroids) NASA wants to test human capabilities to change the course of small space objects. As the creators mentioned, they are now 23 known asteroidsMay collide with Earth for the next 100 years. Objective: To ensure that humanity can be saved from disaster.
Wednesday on the plane Falcon 9 missiles The rocket spacecraft has been launched to allow the practice of kinetic energy technology to change the orbit of the asteroid. Honestly, the car will hit the body and try to change the direction of its flight.
The test will be conducted on Asteroid TemporosIt orbits the largest asteroid, Didymus. This task will be successful if you reduce the orbit of the asteroid to a few minutes. It remains to be seen whether the work will be completed as planned in the next 10 months. The second test, which is very interesting from a technical point of view, takes place in parallel.
Ion unit and artificial meteor shower
NASA will test the next generation as well Ion unit, NEXT-C (NASA-commercial evolutionary xenon engine). Like this type of engine, the carrier medium is, of course, ions driven by the electromagnetic field, which is produced by solar cells. Performance is different.
According to scientists, the NEXT-C engine is three times more powerful than its predecessor NSTAR. It is estimated that the DART ship will accelerate Approximately 6.8 km / h. At this speed, the unit will hit the asteroid next fall. Meanwhile, the exploding debris will fall to Earth and form the first artificial meteor shower.
Image source: Unsplash (Fernando Rodriguez)
Text source: NASA, ed. King