Planetary defense test: NASA's DART spacecraft crashes into asteroid | DW News

NASA's DART spaceship on Monday struck the asteroid Dimorphos, in a test designed to ascertain whether a similar action could in future be used to deflect an asteroid or a comet that's bound for Earth.

Video footage from the spacecraft and images of NASA's ground control team responding to the direct hit were broadcast live online. The abrupt cancellation of DART's radio feed, coupled with still images of the asteroid's surface from very close range roughly one second before impact, served as evidence of it having hit its target at around 14,000 miles per hour (22,500 km/h).

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[wojecire]

What do they mean by the question "is it worth it?" Do they mean saving earth in the future? Learning to do so? Or are they asking if the price tag is worth knowledge, you don't have to pay for knowledge more than once.... So yeah, of course it's worth it

[leighcecil]

Don't worry about asteroids...!! Just our leaders

[TaiCam]

100% worth the money... better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it....

[loricz]

Maybe we'll destroy ourselves before anything from outerspace can.

[Podcast.Surface]

It's a good step forward, hope there are not consequences.

[ChadSimplicio]

Even if they find that DART didn't do much to the asteroid that the spacecraft did hit, it should still yield some science, like what materials the collection of rocks & space regolith is made of.

[ceeemm]

Is it just me or is this the first we've heard of this adventure? Didn't get anything on mainstream media where I am.

[flotsamike]

For perspective we spent more than 400 million in one month redesigning the engine for the f-35 after it had already been delivered. A buyer like Germany will only get three f-35 for $350 million.
An aircraft carrier taskgroup cost about 2 million dollars a day and we send each of our 10 carriers to play war games that can last 2 weeks each for a total of about 300 million dollars a year. So we spent about the same amount over 7 years developing A system that could potentially save the planet as we spend on war games for one branch of the military in less than a year.

[carrollsanders]

Just Think if the Dinosaurs had this we wouldn't be here today.

[wojecire]

Why even mention the cost of it during an economic crisis, as if this price tag from years ago could be lowered in any way after the fact. It's like paying up front for a new car and then 3 years later getting upset because the car cost too much back then, a bit too late for that discussion.

[nanucit]

History will remember this as the day we made the first shot in the war 😂

[ThePinkus]

0:59 I protest that picture with the appropriate expression: "Tiè!!!!"

[thiagoribeiro]

Let's redirect it... few minutes later... oops we actually redirected it to earth lol

[Joe-ijof]

This reminds me of this old nerdy joke:
What caused the dinosaurs to be killed off?


Not having a space program

[lucasjames]

2:18 "We are today's dinosaurs." Yes, in more ways than one. And we are also the asteroid.

[collectorguy]

The Dimorphosians see this very differently.

[princegambit]

Just wondering a well planned budget prepared space dart installed only one focus camera. and i think it is also easier for them to install self eject camera drone, to eject just distance before impact since they accurately monitor eta of impact. How strange for this kind of showtime in space 🤔🤔🤔, in this age of technology.

[phillipunbekannt]

Pls just let the clock restart itself, look at what u ve done

[bluefish]

What about the ones they see just days away?

[ChaJ]

I think some important points are:
1. We don't have everything cataloged that may be a threat to Earth. It is just what we do have cataloged doesn't look to be a major threat.

2. The last couple of size-able strikes we have had in recent years came from the direction of the Sun and so we didn't see it coming. Looking in the direction of the Sun is hard when trying to spot these. In other words, we could have very little warning to launch a mission like this.

3. These missions work best when there is a lot of lead time. If say you intercept an asteroid with minutes to spare, well there ain't much you can do. However, spot one of these years or decades in advance and it may just be a very slight nudge that accumulates over the course of years to decades and ultimately wind up with the Earth being missed. This is not like Star Trek where they are like "we need more power" "let's take everything offline for a few days to do some upgrades." No this is the sooner you can get the nudging done, the more effective the nudging. Spending time to upgrade so you can do a last minute shove makes no sense whatsoever. If anything the asteroid would break up with a big shove, especially as they tend to be gravel piles that have just loosely clumped together in space, and then these broken up gravel piles will rain down across a wide area causing widespread destruction and more likely to take out orbital infrastructure along the way.