The inconspicuous is revealed by planetary defense test

On September 26, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) took place – after a trip
for 10 months with a trajectory aimed at a small rock in the name of planetary salvation
Research – made contact and collided with Dimorphos, a small asteroid about half its size
Height of the Eiffel Tower.

Earlier this month, NASA declared the mission, which aimed to push the asteroid
a small distance closer to the larger asteroid it orbits, a success. That success took shape
to reduce the time to orbit by about four and a half percent. This effect is over 25 times
greater than the 73-second time-to-orbit change originally defined for success.
NASA applauded this achievement. It was a failure on several fronts.

bad experiment

An experimental goal of throwing one object at another and wondering if there will be one
perceptible energy transfer is a behind-the-napkin problem for a physics student. As
Anyone with any experience in the physics of snooker or car collisions can confirm the answer
is a resounding yes.

Assuming a successful collision, the explanation of the experimental success was assured from the start,
and so this was less of an exercise in scientific discovery and more of a publicity opportunity
the terms “planetary defense” via “kinetic impact” to the public.

Impractical

A few decades would be needed to try to deflect a newly discovered asteroid
from a collision course with Earth, and although there are currently no known asteroids on such
a course for the planet, the brilliance of the sun hides all the asteroids behind it, leaving a vacant space
Vastness in the asteroid landscape around Earth in the decades and centuries to come.

With a planned launch for the first half of 2026, the Near-Earth Object Surveyor telescope
Project hopes to fill this image. A worst-case scenario would reveal the previously unknown
Asteroids are hurtling toward Earth just a few years away. That would leave too little
Time to do a kinetic impactor mission.

A nuclear option to divert such an asteroid in less than a decade has yet to be found
considered the best option, according to a study published in Research last year
Acta Astronautica magazine. However, the limiting factor is still the exterior of the United Nations
Outer Space Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons in Space and the Complex, Possibly Impossible,
international negotiations that would be necessary to launch a nuclear missile into space,
ever for the purpose of asteroid deflection.

Ecological damage

NASA defines astrobiology as “the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of
Life in the universe.” From there, astroecology can be defined: how organisms, namely humans, interact with the vast cosmic environment and its resources. Asteroids and meteors fall under the umbrella of cosmic resources and environments.

A project that makes such a stark transformation of the landscape and the orbit of a
Asteroid carrying the DART mission would require an environmental impact assessment
Earth. And in fact, such assessments are carried out for space missions, but only in terms of
the launch itself, ie potential impact on Earth. Send an object the size of a refrigerator in one direction
A journey to initiate an intergalactic garbage heap does not need such a meaningless document
preparation efforts.

Take only photos, leave only footprints. But only if you are on earth. In space?
take lanes. Leave rubble, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish of all kinds behind with no plan to return
Sender.

The costs

Priced at $325 million, DART was an expensive crash-test refrigerator. That is
about as much money as the total revenue of World Vision Canada in 2021. It is enough to fund
CARE Canada’s operations for approximately three years at 2020-21 levels. That’s more than 2021
Program issues for the US branch of the World Wildlife Fund. That’s about as much as Amnesty
Fundraising by International in 2020. All funds that would be used for immediate relief
needs of the people and animals living on our planet.
A follow-up project is planned by the European Space Agency for several
years time. It’s an invaluable initial investment in deflecting an as-yet-unknown asteroid
Threat, a threat that the technology is not currently available to detect.

The judgment

A complex piece of metal was launched earlier this year aiming at a space rock
push it. This implementation and realization of a seemingly midnight back-of-the-blue
Cheese-buffalo-chicken-wing-sauce-stained-pilsner-damp-napkin-bill yielded
the complex piece of metal that pushes the space rock.

The question that arises, and the most logical opportunity for future research, is: If a
Object is pressed harder, will it move further? And, as a sobering early morning thought, the
The way to the survival of the planet is through the establishment of remote outposts
electrical, mechanical, industrial scrap and waste.