NASA Ready for Practice , Mission to Redirect Potentially , Deadly Asteroids.<br />'The Independent' reports that NASA <br />plans to slam a high-speed spacecraft into <br />a massive asteroid in an attempt to redirect it.<br />The space agency's experimental <br />mission will take place on <br />September 26 and will be aired live.<br />The Double Asteroid Redirection <br />Test mission, or DART, was <br />launched in November of 2021.<br />It is designed to make contact<br />with the asteroid Dimorphos in <br />an attempt to alter its orbit.<br />'The Independent' reports <br />that Dimorphos does not <br />pose a threat to Earth.<br />The mission is meant to provide scientists with data <br />needed to construct a similar mission to redirect<br />a hypothetical asteroid that actually threatens Earth.<br />The mission is a crucial step in NASA's planetary <br />defense initiative which looks to identify and <br />mitigate threats posed by asteroids to life on Earth.<br />DART is headed for a high-speed <br />collision with Dimorphos around <br />6.8 million miles from Earth. .<br />The car-sized spacecraft will impact <br />the asteroid at around 4 miles per <br />second, or 14,400 miles per hour.<br />In 2027, the European Space Agency's HERA <br />mission will arrive at Dimorphos to assess <br />the impact of DART on the asteroid's orbit.<br />In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring NASA to catalog at least 90% of all asteroids large enough to pose a significant threat to Earth.<br />Dart is an early test of the types of technologies and mission profiles <br />needed to potentially avert widespread destruction similar to what <br />is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs
