Defense test in space: NASA probe crashes into asteroids

NASA has managed a spectacular experiment in space: As planned, a probe rammed an asteroid to test whether defense would be possible in an emergency. It is the first attempt to change the trajectory of a celestial body.

For the first time, NASA has intentionally crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its trajectory. The Dart (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) probe crashed into the asteroid moon Dimorphos at more than 20,000 kilometers per hour during the spectacular experiment, as can be seen on live images.

“Impact confirmed for world’s first planetary defense test mission,” NASA announced. The mission made history, said NASA manager Lori Glaze. “We are now entering a new era for humanity where we may have the ability to protect ourselves against an asteroid impact.”

Cheering in the control center

In the images transmitted back to Earth by the probe’s camera, the asteroid Dimorphos only became visible as a bright point about an hour before impact, then grew larger and finally became visible with surface detail and shading – until the camera was destroyed on impact and that picture displayed a red error.

Cheers erupted in NASA’s control center, with the team clapping and hugging each other. Until shortly before impact, it was not quite certain whether the probe the size of a vending machine, which was flying at a speed of around 6.6 kilometers per second and which had been on autopilot for the last few minutes, would actually hit the asteroid the size of a football stadium would.

$330 million mission

The probe for the experiment was launched in California in November 2021. The impact is expected to slightly alter the orbit of Dimorphos, which is about 11 million kilometers from Earth.

According to NASA calculations, Dimorphos, a kind of moon of the asteroid Didymos, currently poses no danger to Earth – and the mission is designed in such a way that the asteroid should not pose a danger even after the probe has hit it. From the approximately 330 million dollar mission, NASA hopes to find out how the earth could be protected from approaching asteroids.

Research work is just beginning

After the successful impact, the actual scientific work begins, said NASA manager Glaze. The researchers now have to investigate whether the approximately twelve-hour orbit of the Dimorphos has changed as a result of the impact of the probe – and if so, to what extent it has changed.