NASA's DART Mission

The world's first planetary defense system is called “DART,” or Double Asteroid Redirection Test and it’s used to redirect asteroids from impacting earth. Lots of people worked to make this system possible. Scientists, engineers, and researchers all worked together to make this weapon possible. DART was recently tested on an asteroid named Dimophos that is 160 meter in length. There were protocols in place for if anything went wrong, however, the mission was a complete success. As DART hit on target, it worked far better than imagined., Its exceedingly good results were touted by DART Investigation Team Member Jessica Sunshine: “we knew it was going to be exciting, and I thought it was going to work, but nobody could have predicted that.” The success of DART was celebrated by all those who worked on the project, as a lot of work went into it. Elena Adams, a DART systems engineer, reported being excited by the results as well as finally being able to sleep, indicating the intense work it took to make it possible.

The way that DART works is that it is a “kinetic impactor,” which is how it redirects asteroids. A kinetic impactor is a spacecraft that is launched at a celestial body in space that redirects it. The way this happens is by launching the object at high speeds, which are then multiplied by the weight of said object, allowing it to build momentum which then transfers into kinetic energy. The results of this can have devastating effects. In the case of DART, it travels at 6.1 kilometers (3.8 miles) per second weighing about 1345lbs or 610kilos at launch and 1260lbs or 570 kilos at impact. You can read more about DART’s specifications the official website. This process creates a massive amount of kinetic energy for when DART impacts the asteroid.

The results from DART’s test run were extremely good, and they are still being studied at this moment. It was a great test of kinetic impactors and their effectiveness, as well as the world's defense system against asteroids. From just watching the impact it is easy to see how well DART struck the asteroid, but its trajectory is to be studied to find out how well it actually worked at redirecting the asteroid's path. While the logistical evidence on whether or not this would help us survive these asteroids is still being looked into by NASA, the mission has been cleared as a success overall. While the weapon provides us with a way to survive these space rocks, we still have a major problem in not being able to detect them. “We can’t use these techniques unless we know where the objects are,” said astronomer Amy Mainzer, commenting that finding these celestial bodies is proving an issue.

This event was monumental in human history as it was a huge landmark achievement for the world. This was being watched not only by NASA workers or the team that worked on DART. It was being watched by astronomers, both professionals and amateurs together, as DART headed towards its final destination. The excitement and celebration of its success wasn’t only celebrated by the team that worked on DART. It was celebrated by everyone watching as it was an incredible achievement which gave us an opportunity to have a chance against these devastating occurrences. The asteroid that DART hit was 160 meters in diameter, which could take out a city or small country. This now has a possible solution and that for the human race is huge. Unlike the last great species of this planet, the dinosaurs, humans can and will fight the asteroids for our survival.

So to finish this off, the construction and success of NASA’s DART as our world's first planetary defense system has been a complete success. It has been deemed as successful by NASA as the impact of DART left plenty of evidence that it worked based on damage done to the asteroid. The actual change in trajectory is still being tested to see how effective it was at that. NASA is now working on being able to better detect asteroids as DARTs are useless against an enemy we can’t see. Humanity is one major step closer to having a solution to one of our biggest threats.