Officials at the U.S. space agency have stated that NASA's plan to strike an asteroid with a spacecraft aims to provide precise insights on how to prevent destructive space rock collisions with Earth. Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division, revealed on Sunday that for the first time, a spacecraft will attempt to collide with an asteroid next fall as an experiment to demonstrate how such a celestial body can be diverted if heading toward Earth. Glaze explained, "I feel that once this test is completed, we will gain a lot of information and be better prepared in the future to address hazardous asteroids."
The first step of the experiment will begin on Tuesday, when SpaceX will launch NASA's "DART" mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. According to UPI, Tom Statler, a space scientist involved in the DART program, stated, "Many facts remain unknown about the test outcome, as NASA has limited knowledge about the composition of the targeted asteroid (Dimorphos), which is the size of a football field." The mission, estimated to cost $330 million, will target the binary asteroid system "Didymos," which consists of two bodies orbiting each other. The target asteroid "Dimorphos" is a satellite of "Didymos." The spacecraft will fly toward it at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour, with ground telescopes monitoring the impact, its effects, and its ability to alter its trajectory.
