DART: Double Asteroid Redirection Test

Armageddon anyone ?

Well.... Not really , However !

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) study
has been undertaken by the Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory with support from members of
NASA centers including the Goddard Space Flight
Center, the Johnson Space Center, and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, as one of two elements of a
joint mission named Asteroid Impact & Deflection
Assessment (AIDA), which is a first demonstration
of asteroid deflection and a characterization of the
kinetic impact effects. AIDA consists of two
independent but mutually supporting missions, one of
which is the asteroid kinetic impactor and the other is
the characterization spacecraft. These two missions
are, respectively, DART and the European Space
Agency’s Asteroid Impact Monitoring (AIM)
mission. DART will be the first ever space mission to
deflect the trajectory of an asteroid and measure the
deflection to within 10%. This will be done using a
binary asteroid target with accurate determinations of
orbital period by ground-based observations. DART
will return vital data to determine the momentum
transfer efficiency of the kinetic impact

It will be interesting to see if this will work .

Are we in the beginning stages of Asteroid defense ?

The project is estimated to cost around 150 million and is set to began in October of 2022.

DART targets the asteroid Didymos in October, 2022,
during a close approach to Earth. The DART impact
will be observable by ground-based radar and optical
telescopes around the world, providing exciting
opportunities for international participation in this
first asteroid deflection experiment. The DART
mission will use ground-based observations to make
the required measurements of the orbital deflection,
by measuring the orbital period change of the binary
asteroid. The DART impact will change the period
by 0.5% – 1%, and this change can be determined to
10% accuracy within months of observations. The
DART target is specifically chosen because it is an
eclipsing binary, which enables accurate
determination of small period changes by groundbased
optical light curve measurements. In an
eclipsing binary [3], the two objects pass in front of
each other (occultations), or one object creates solar
eclipses seen by the other, so there are sharp features
in the lightcurves which can be timed accurately.

Alright , Time to put the tin foil hats on for this one , I am sure some major conspiracy's are going to formulate around this .
So with that said I have a link to the PDF that goes deeper into the project .
Its very interesting to say the least .

LInk

Thoughts ?

Kap.

Interesting, thanks! I was thinking it might be good to go ahead and start taking measurements of the light curve well ahead of time for later comparison but really it doesn't make any good close approaches to earth where it will be readily observable until 2022 (even then it's still telescope-only of course).

a reply to: Kapusta

I suppose it will always depend on the size, composition, velocity and incoming direction of any asteroid as to our capability to destroy them or even detect them in time to do anything about it.

Certainly a step in the right direction.

As long as they don't incidentally develop a system that keeps us fenced in on this planet...


It's too bad we don't have the tech to use the Moon as a deterrent and shield. Saturn already has asteroid deflection figured out with its jazzy rings.

originally posted by: trifecta
As long as they don't incidentally develop a system that keeps us fenced in on this planet...


It's too bad we don't have the tech to use the Moon as a deterrent and shield. Saturn already has asteroid deflection figured out with its jazzy rings.

Lol , if we can conquer gravity then manybe just maybe we would be able to use force fields

a reply to: trifecta

There's a reason the far side of the Moon has just tons and tons of craters.

Jupiter and the Sun have undoubtedly gobbled up countless wandering asteroids and comets over the billions of years. So you can thank them too. As for Saturn? It's rings are just fine dust and ice particles, nothing suitable for any sort of asteroid deflection.

Can you get an impactor to transfer a large portion of it's kinetic energy, like 80 or 90%? It seem like 60% would be readily attainable, with 75% as a goal.

Maybe the best defense system would be numerous objects pre deployed in high-speed earth orbits. They could be tasked quickly with all their energy already on tap, not depending on rails, tunnels, rockets, giant rubberbands or springs...

Build up their energy slowly and reliably with ion engines. When the object comes, the killbots are all fully powered and accelerated to speed, just need to be deflected to target.

"Oh No... I said hit it on the left side... no the other left .... (asteroid deflected towards Earth).

Isnt Asteroid deflection part of NASAs journey to Mars?

Just watched The Martian - Apollo 13 in the next century, loved it!!

a reply to: FlyingFox

Any sort of kinetic impact is going to lose a lot of its energy to heat. For any object of size I imagine it would be better off to attach a craft, stop it's spin, and start pushing (or pulling, which would be even better).

a reply to: FlyingFox

I have long advocated setting several such "drones" into high orbit. They would be equipted with "inertia-impulse" engines
and charged by solar power. With the drones already orbiting on station much of the current lead time for action would be elliminated. When, or if, a foriegn body appeared on a collision course with earth, they would be directed to intercept and redirect it into a safer path or likely into the sun.

a reply to: tinymind

Not really. Throw in some wild inclinations or anything and you'd use most of your Dv up aligning the planes, not leaving anything for any sort of intercept.

And what's cheaper: Launching one direct probe as needed or having dozens of probes in orbits that very likely may not be useful, wasting time, energy, money, and manpower?

Scale ability.