DART Mission To Be Launched by NASA

Highlights:

• NASA is set to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on November 24, 2021.
• NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will be launched in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
• The Mission is set to launch on November 24, 2021, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
• NASA aims to build advanced technologies to protect the Earth from dangerous asteroid collisions.
• There had been numerous warnings from astronomers and scientists that there might be an asteroid Collision without a proper defence system.
• The DART mission is based on the idea of developing a defence system against asteroid collisions. It is in the final stages of advancement.
• Under the mission, spacecraft will be sent towards the Didymos asteroid system, approximately 109.4 kilometres away from Earth.
• Didymos system comprise of two asteroids, Didymos and Dimorphos. 
• The spacecraft will hit Dimorphos to decide if kinetic impactor technology can secure or deflect asteroids.
• Kinetic impactor technology requires flying the spacecraft directly into a small Solar System body.

• DART spacecraft comprises compressed Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) and a Didymos Reconnaissance & Asteroid Camera for Optical (DRACO) navigation.
• This suicidal spacecraft will hit the system at the speed of 24,140 Kmph.
• This spacecraft has been built and improved at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).