fmdog44
Well-known Member
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- Houston, Texas
This is from an article in Popular Mechanics Magazine Nov/Dec issue. If I did not read this and someone stopped me on the street to tell me this I would write that person as simply nuts. Science is now crazier than fantasy.
In 2021 NASA will attempt their their Double Asteroid Redirection Teat (DART). This mission will slamming an oven-sized spacecraft in to an asteroid called Dimorphos scheduled to make a close but safe approach to Earth in 2022 as scientists measure how the impact changes Dimorphos's trajectory. They will try to avoid fragmentation and one way to avoid it is what might be called the cosmic lasso method. This is done by hauling a smaller space rock to an asteroid and tethering the two. Attaching mass to the threatening asteroid would displace it's center of mass and shift it to a safer orbit. The asteroid Bennu's next closest approach to Earth will happen in 2060 and a launch to divert it will be in 2035 would give it enough time to attach and deflect it's path.
In 2021 NASA will attempt their their Double Asteroid Redirection Teat (DART). This mission will slamming an oven-sized spacecraft in to an asteroid called Dimorphos scheduled to make a close but safe approach to Earth in 2022 as scientists measure how the impact changes Dimorphos's trajectory. They will try to avoid fragmentation and one way to avoid it is what might be called the cosmic lasso method. This is done by hauling a smaller space rock to an asteroid and tethering the two. Attaching mass to the threatening asteroid would displace it's center of mass and shift it to a safer orbit. The asteroid Bennu's next closest approach to Earth will happen in 2060 and a launch to divert it will be in 2035 would give it enough time to attach and deflect it's path.