NASA just crashed a 325-million dollar rocket into an asteroid on purpose to change the asteroid’s orbital period. 

On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA successfully crashed the DART spacecraft into Dimorphos, a small asteroid orbiting Didymos. At this point, the Didymos system poses no threat to earth, making it the perfect test subject. 

The purpose of this mission was to knock Dimorphos off its current orbital path. This was humanity’s first attempt at knocking an object in space off orbit, and provided a test in case a situation occurs where knocking an asteroid off course is needed. 

Early telescope observations have concluded Dimorphos was knocked off its orbit by one percent, or roughly shortening its orbit by 10 minutes. 

What is next for the DART project? Now the research portion begins. Is it possible for the asteroid to return to its original orbit? What scale of objects could we apply this defense technique to? What are the long-term effects of doing this? 

In the next four years, the European space agency will conduct a project to study the Dimorphos asteroid system and the crater left by DART’s impact. It’s important to learn how many segments of debris were separated, and how fast it was traveling so calculations could be adjusted in case of a real-world situation. 

Over the next few months and years, more images will be released, research completed, and questions will be answered as part of NASA’s continuing mission

NASA’s upcoming projects: 

• 2022
  • October 17th NASA launches cubesat missions one in order to map lunar polar hydrogen the other being launched in order to find lunar water and volatiles.
  • October 17th NASA launches lunar flyby Cubesat
  • December 22nd NASA launches CLPS lunar lander

•  2023 
  • June 20 ESA mission makes third trip mercury flyby
  • September 24 return to earth with samples of asteroid Bennu

To see all of Future events and project visit: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/upcoming.html