NASA launches space probes to destroy asteroids

NASA It is scheduled to take off at dawn Saturday. A month later, the DART spacecraft will chase a double asteroid closer to home.

The mission ends when Dart hits the main asteroid moon. to change its orbit, an experiment that could one day save Earth from an approaching boulder.

Next summer, a spacecraft will launch into the world of rare metals: A nickel-iron asteroid could be the exposed core of what was once a planet. A pair of the company’s small ships, the size of suitcases, will be ejected from another group of twin asteroids.

And in 2023, a space capsule will parachute into the Utah desert with the first NASA samples. From an asteroid, it was collected last year by the robot excavator Osiris Rex. The specimens are from Bennu, a rock with debris and boulders that could endanger the Earth within two centuries.

“Each of those asteroids we visit tells our story, the story of the solar system,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission chief.

There is nothing better for understanding how our solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago. Lucy’s senior scientist, Hal Levison, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said. “They are planetary formation fossils.”

China and Russia will collaborate on an asteroid mission later this decade. AndThe UAE also plans to visit asteroids in the next few years.

There is nothing better to understand how our solar system formed 4.6 billion years agoLucy’s senior scientist, Hal Levison, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said. “They are planetary formation fossils.”

China and Russia will collaborate on an asteroid mission later this decade. The UAE also plans to visit asteroids in the next few years.

PJG