By Tim Binnall
In an effort to ensure that humanity does not suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs, a planetary defense system developed by NASA will culminate this evening when a spacecraft smashes into an asteroid in the hopes of sending the space rock in a different direction. The ambitious endeavor, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), reportedly centers around a solar panel-powered rectangular craft that was deployed by a SpaceX rocket in May of 2021 and sent 7 million miles towards the asteroid Didymos as well as its moonlet Dimorphos. If all goes according to plan, DART will collide with the latter space rock shortly after 7 PM (EDT) this evening in a first-of-its-kind planetary defense mission.
The purpose of DART is to test the longstanding theory that a catastrophic asteroid strike to our planet could be prevented by altering the trajectory of such a space rock via human intervention. This general concept has been employed in an array of disaster films and science fiction works to varying degrees of success over the years, though whether such a tactic would work has always been a matter of conjecture among scientists. Beyond the ultimate goal of changing the direction of Dimorphos, the space agency says that simply making contact with the moonlet is a sizable challenge because the asteroid measures a mere 560 feet in diameter and will not even be visible to DART's camera until about an hour before the scheduled impact.
Assuming that it can successfully lock on to its tiny target, DART will wallop Dimorphos at a staggering speed of 14,760 miles-per-hour, destroying the spacecraft in the process. Should the initial mission be a success, it could take weeks before astronomers can determine if it was effective in changing the moonlet's trajectory. For those who might be fearing some kind of unintended consequences wherein the mission accidentally redirects the asteroid towards Earth and spells our doom, NASA has indicated that such a scenario is not possible and that the mission poses no threat to the planet.