In the Ground System Equipment control room at APL, engineers perform tests and simulations on the DART spacecraft, which sits behind glass in the clean room. Credit: Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
Key Takeaways:
NASA's DART mission is history's first test of planetary defense, launching to intentionally change an asteroid's trajectory.
International and national groups (e.g., SMPAG, NEOShield, NITEP) are actively developing protocols and technologies to monitor and respond to potential asteroid threats.
Proposed asteroid deflection methods include kinetic impactors, blast deflection, and gravity tractors, with recommendations favoring kinetic impactor tests.
Organizations have established criteria for considering and executing prevention missions, emphasizing the importance of early detection and the feasibility of deflection with several years' warning.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)—history’s first mission aimed at changing the trajectory of an incoming asteroid—is set to launch Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
While the threat from possible asteroids hurtling toward Earth is remote, NASA says it wants to develop and test planetary defense systems just in case.
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Thom is a former senior editor for FLYING. Previously, his freelance reporting appeared in aviation industry magazines. Thom also spent three decades as a TV and digital journalist at CNN’s bureaus in Washington and Atlanta, eventually specializing in aviation. He has reported from air shows in Oshkosh, Farnborough and Paris. Follow Thom on Twitter @thompatterson.
