Discussion
Cannot say that I've seen or heard much about this mission, but its about to end in about 75mins when its crashes into Astroid Dimorphos.
Its to see if they can alter its course by hitting it.
Live camera feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Z1E0mW2ag
or with NasaSpaceFlight team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrxPT8UFJRM
Its to see if they can alter its course by hitting it.
Live camera feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Z1E0mW2ag
or with NasaSpaceFlight team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrxPT8UFJRM
Edited by Russ35 on Monday 26th September 23:33
I know it was launched on November 24th last year by a SpaceX Falcon 9. The booster landed OK soon after.
“This is NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission. This little spacecraft will try to intercept and hit an asteroid at almost 15,000 mph in an effort to measurably alter its trajectory. It's basically the first ground to asteroid missile. The idea being to develop it as a potential future planetary defence system.
It's heading for a specific binary asteroid called Didymos. The main asteroid body, called Didymos-A is about 780m in diameter and the smaller one, called Didymos-B or Dimorphos, is about 163m. They orbit each about 1.1Km apart.”
“This is NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission. This little spacecraft will try to intercept and hit an asteroid at almost 15,000 mph in an effort to measurably alter its trajectory. It's basically the first ground to asteroid missile. The idea being to develop it as a potential future planetary defence system.
It's heading for a specific binary asteroid called Didymos. The main asteroid body, called Didymos-A is about 780m in diameter and the smaller one, called Didymos-B or Dimorphos, is about 163m. They orbit each about 1.1Km apart.”
I wonder if the density and consistency of these objects will have an effect on how much velocity variation will be imparted to it by the impact. They do seem, in some cases, to be a fairly loose conglomeration of rubble rather than a simple solid object.
It's kind of like diving into a blancmange rather than onto a hard surface.
It's kind of like diving into a blancmange rather than onto a hard surface.
Eric Mc said:
I wonder if the density and consistency of these objects will have an effect on how much velocity variation will be imparted to it by the impact.
Of course; the denser/faster the asteroid the less effect an impact will have. If you roll a jack against a bowling ball you'll get the idea.Knowing the way space missions can go, it may be that the next asteroid was going to be a near miss but they manage to make it a hit!
otolith said:
Spectacular images considering the event happened 7 million miles away.Eric Mc said:
otolith said:
Spectacular images considering the event happened 7 million miles away.I'm looking forward to the images from the LICIA Cube (Italy's contribution to the project/experiment) which is a 15 kg shoebox satellite that was released by DART 15 days ago to record the collision from a safe distance.
Some clever stuff going on indeed.
Eric Mc said:
I wonder if the density and consistency of these objects will have an effect on how much velocity variation will be imparted to it by the impact. They do seem, in some cases, to be a fairly loose conglomeration of rubble rather than a simple solid object.
It's kind of like diving into a blancmange rather than onto a hard surface.
This is a "rubble pile" asteroid with pretty low gravity, so about the worst case scenario. It's kind of like diving into a blancmange rather than onto a hard surface.
Thankfully even in this type they're packed well enough that the energy is still mostly dissipated into the asteroid and not wasted on internal kinetics.
prand said:
I'm looking forward to the images from the LICIA Cube (Italy's contribution to the project/experiment) which is a 15 kg shoebox satellite that was released by DART 15 days ago to record the collision from a safe distance.
Yes, I was rather expecting to see that today, as we had the on-board footage.Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff