NASA to stream DART crash into Dimorphos meteor today

Scientists expect a successful crash of a DART spacecraft into the small Dimorphos asteroid nearly 7 million miles from Earth at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, in a NASA test of a futuristic planetary defense system.

The event will be streamed live starting at 5:30 p.m. EDT Monday.   Some images will come from the spacecraft itself as it approaches the meteor.  Other sites will offer commentary. 

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test is expected to demonstrate how a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to target an asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change its motion or speed so much that it can be measured by ground-based telescopes.

 Data from the DART mission will help NASA and other agencies help the international space community prepare for an asteroid that might impact Earth, should one ever be discovered in coming decades. So far, scientists believe no known asteroid threatens our planet for the next 100 years.

Dimorphos is only 530 feet across and orbits a bigger asteroid named Didymos, about a half-mile across. Scientists hope the collision by the DART unmanned spacecraft will change the orbit of Dimorphos to be detected by sophisticated telescopes, then use that data to compare with computer simulations of crashes into asteroids. Then, scientists can plan measures to deal with threatening asteroids, including breaking them up or moving them away from Earth, if needed.

One researcher said the spacecraft’s impact on Dimorphos would be comparable to crashing a small golf cart into a pyramid in Egypt, but still enough to evaluate changes in its orbit. The spacecraft is expected to hit Dimorphos at 4 miles per second, about 13,000 mph.  A ride-along CubeSat built by the Italian Space Agency and separated from DART will observe the collision and be used to send back data in coming weeks. A DRACO camera system aboard the DART spacecraft will record its approach.

Artemis I to roll back to hanger due to hurricane threat

Separately, NASA decided Monday morning to roll back Artemis I spacecraft and rocket stack to a nearby Vehicle Assembly Building hangar at Kennedy Space Center to protect it from Hurricane Ian as it heads toward Florida from the Gulf of Mexico.  A rollback precludes the possibility of a possible launch of its mission around the Moon on Oct. 2.

The rollback will cover four miles back to the VAB starting about 11 p.m. EDT Monday. The $4 billion SLS rockets and Orion spacecraft weigh 5.75 million pounds and rise 322-feet in height.

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