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E. AMADE AND A. MATILLA |
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Updated on Tuesday, 23November2021-18: 12
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Space A NASA spacecraft will voluntarily crash into an asteroid to divert its trajectory on a "planetary defense" mission
In Russia the first space film expedition returns to Earth
For 230 million years, about a thousand times longer than our species has existed, dinosaurs ruled the planet. Until, according to the most widespread theory, the impact of a meteorite disrupted the climate and destroyed the food chains on which they depended. Although the pandemic and other catastrophes have familiarized us with the idea that the unexpected, sooner or later, ends up happening, the concern that a similar collision threatens our species is not new. In fact, what is considered the best solution to avoid it is about to be tested.
NASA's mission 'Dart' is scheduled to take off tomorrow at 07:21 (Spanish peninsular time) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX - the company of magnate Elon Musk - from the Vandenberg military base, California. It will be the first to test on the ground - in this case, outer space - a technique of what is known as active planetary defense. Specifically, experts believe that the most effective way to deflect a threat is to launch a ship to
collide with it and thus change its orbit
.
To move from theory to practice, 'Dart' will crash into Dimorphos, an asteroid 163 meters in diameter that is, in turn, the moon of another asteroid, Didymos, 780 meters. Didymos ('twin', in Greek) is also the name of the binary system, discovered in 1996 from telescopes in the Sonoran desert, in Arizona. It completes an orbit around the Sun every 770 days, and
it is not a real danger to Earth, but only the first candidate chosen to test and fine-tune the technique
. That is not little.
"It is preferable to test these technologies while we do not have any large asteroids that pose an immediate danger to our planet, so that we can anticipate events with time", assesses Rafael Bachiller, director of the National Astronomical Observatory and member of the Royal Academy of Doctors from Spain. "
Although small, the probability that a large rock will fall from time to time is not zero
. It is advisable to be prepared," he says.
Dart will hit the small asteroid moon at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second. It will do so, as planned, at the end of September 2022, when the Didymos system is at one of its closest orbital points to Earth,
some 11 million kilometers away
.
The collision will only change the speed at which Dimorphos rotates around the main body by "a fraction of 1%," NASA predicts. But it will be enough to alter the orbital period in several minutes, enough for it to be
observed from telescopes and ground-based radars
. The objective will be to measure, for the first time and in real circumstances, the effectiveness of the deflection method (or change of direction), the same that one day we might need to deflect a possible threat on its way to Earth.
The intentional collision of 'Dart' will be possible thanks to the camera that goes on board the ship, called Draco, and that uses a complex autonomous navigation system. Unlike traditional instruments, which send raw data to Earth,
the camera will process the images autonomously
, using the instruments of the spacecraft itself. All for the sole purpose of destroying itself and thereby shedding light on the deflection method.
The small satellite LICIA Cube, developed by the Italian Space Agency, will have separated 10 days before the collision of the main spacecraft, with which it travels, to
send data and images to Earth of the impact and the ejection plume it generates.
. Before, as soon as the satellite duo begins to be seen, this sort of 'selfie sat', as some scientists already call it, will help the 'Dart' camera to send its first images of Didymos and Dimorphos. It will be, if everything goes according to plan, starting next year.
Although the 'Dart' mission is directed by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch its own complementary mission from November 2024, when the European spacecraft 'Hera' will take off, according to current forecasts, towards the Didymos system. , with the aim of analyzing the remains of the collision and obtaining new data on what happened.
ESA hopes to be able to determine
unknowns such as the exact mass, composition and internal structure of Dimorphos
, as well as the shape of the crater that the collision will leave in autumn 2022.
Two sister missions
"Dart 'and' Hera 'were originally conceived as a coordinated mission composed of two spacecraft, in which one mission would perform the deviation and the other would take precise measurements of the results," explains Ian Carnelli, supervisor of the' Hera 'mission. at ESA. "
Over the years, the implementation of both missions was separated, but international cooperation was maintained
through the scientific consortium of Asteroid Impact Deviation Assessment," he adds. "Although both ships are designed to operate separately, their overall contribution to science will be greatly enhanced by the combination of their results."
"The European intervention in 2024 will have a fundamental importance", points out, for his part, Rafael Bachiller. "By studying this impact and knowing the structure of Dimorphos, we will be able to extrapolate what to expect in other collisions.
There are asteroids with very varied characteristics and, when the time comes, we will have to act depending on each case,
" he explains.
When that decisive moment will come, or if it will come as long as there are still humans, no one knows.
But the possibility exists.
"Every year about 40,000 tons of interplanetary material fall on our planet, but almost everything is dusty", recalls Bachiller.
"There are about 16 tons that fall each year in the form of significant meteorites, of more than 50 grams.
The falls of large rocks are rare, but they can significantly alter the evolution of our planet
. This is what happened 65 million years ago , when there was a huge extinction of species ".
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