{"id":138,"date":"2023-03-17T20:16:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T00:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2023-11-16T13:42:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T18:42:45","slug":"nasa-redirects-an-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/17\/nasa-redirects-an-asteroid\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Redirects an Asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Season 2 \u2022 Episode 8<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>65 million years ago, an asteroid struck the earth; in the ensuing planetary darkness, the dinosaurs went extinct. But the dinosaurs didn\u2019t have a space program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We do, and we can now spot incoming asteroids with steadily improving confidence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we see one on a collision course with the Earth, we know from the movies that the solution is to nuke it. Right?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, NASA has a better, cleverer idea. If you can just nudge an asteroid slightly off its current path, maybe 25 or 50 years before it hits us, it won\u2019t hit the earth. It will sail harmlessly past us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2022, NASA put that idea to the test. It sent a tiny spacecraft 7 million miles into space, for the express purpose of crashing into a known asteroid\u2014to see if we could bump it into a different path.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We quickly found out. This is the story of the DART mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guests: Dr. Richard Binzel, MIT professor. Dr. Elena Adams, lead engineer for NASA\u2019s DART mission. Dr. Lori Glaze, director of NASA\u2019s planetary science division.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Episode transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Intro<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Theme begins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What would we do if we detected a deadly asteroid on a collision course with the Earth? Sorry, Hollywood\u2014the best idea would&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;<\/em>be blowing it up with nukes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:42:28&nbsp; \/ if you blow up an asteroid, you create a large number of chunks. And those chunks will still have the same velocity. They\u2019ll still be going the same direction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, NASA\u2019s got a better plan. And in September 2022, they tried it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 11:11:12&nbsp; Oh, yeah. Little kamikaze spacecraft, yeah, for the good of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m David Pogue, and this is \u201cUnsung Science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>First Ad<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Season 2, Episode ___: NASA Redirects an Asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are&nbsp;<em>so many&nbsp;<\/em>movies about asteroids hitting the earth. \u201cArmageddon.\u201d \u201cDeep Impact.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up.\u201d \u201cWhen Worlds Collide.\u201d \u201cIce Age: Collision Course.\u201d And a whoooollllle lot of even worse movies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Meteor (1979) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RW6jS9bJ5bo?start=43&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NARR: It cannot think. It cannot reason. It cannot change its course. And it\u2019s going to strike the earth\u2026in six days.&nbsp;<em>(chord!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, we can forgive Hollywood screenwriters, right? An asteroid plot supplies instant drama and high stakes for the characters. Here\u2019s Billy Bob Thornton sinking his teeth into the \u201cArmageddon\u201d dialogue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>From 11:13 in \u201cArmageddon:\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BILLY BOB: lt\u2019s what we call a global killer. The end of mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And here\u2019s President Morgan Freeman in \u201cDeep Impact:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MORGAN: 1:31:00&nbsp; Within a week, the skies will be dark with dust from the impact, and they will stay dark for years. All plant life will be dead within\u2026 four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, that\u2019s pretty high stakes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An asteroid strike also offers a brilliant audio-visual spectacle\u2014not a bad feature in a movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"When Worlds Collide (1951) - Movie Trailer\" width=\"782\" height=\"587\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KcLaMyc4ecE?start=87&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NARR: Tremendous tidal waves smashing New York City. The molten fires from bowels of the earth, gushing out to consume our world.&nbsp;<em>(chord!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In all of the recent asteroid movies, our solution to the threat is always something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cArmageddon\u201d<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><em>19:30<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: Are you suggesting we blow this&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.definitions.net\/definition\/thing\">thing<\/a>&nbsp;up from the inside?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SCIENCE: That\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.definitions.net\/definition\/exactly\">exactly<\/a>&nbsp;what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:21:29&nbsp; I\u2019ve never been able to sit still watching any of the asteroid movies (LAUGH) and not just want to get up and walk away. \/ 14:21:38&nbsp; \/ the asteroid movies are all about entertainment and not about science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Richard Binzel is a professor of planetary science at MIT. He is&nbsp;<em>the&nbsp;<\/em>asteroid guy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 13:50:14&nbsp; I have been studying asteroids since I was 15 years old. And\u2013 I still find them fascinating to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it turns out, asteroids are crumbs left over from the formation of our solar system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:12:26&nbsp; Most of the asteroids in our solar system are between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It\u2019s called the asteroid belt. \/ And occasionally, they\u2019ll find themselves kicked into an orbit that crosses that of the earth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binzel has discovered plenty of asteroids himself\u2014and even named them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:34:40&nbsp; \/ the first one, I named for my grandfather, who was very inspirational to me in becoming a scientist. \/ the second one, I named for my wife. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:34:53&nbsp; That\u2019s very nice. Does the size, makeup, and trajectory of the one you named for your wife live up to her awesomeness? (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:35:50&nbsp; \/ My wife\u2019s asteroid is safely orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, where the sun is always shining. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:36:01&nbsp; You\u2019ve rehearsed that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:36:02&nbsp; I did. (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binzel also invented the Torino scale, which does for asteroids what the Richter scale does for earthquakes. It rates every asteroid from 0 to 10, based on its likelihood to hit us, and how damaging it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 13:59:14&nbsp; So what\u2019s a ten on your scale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 13:59:16&nbsp; So on the Torino Scale, ten is effectively \/ dinosaur killer impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 13:59:22&nbsp; Okay. And then what are zeroes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 13:59:24&nbsp; \/ all the objects we know of today reside at zero or one on the Torino Scale, which simply means they\u2019re so small that \/ they don\u2019t matter, or that we know for sure there\u2019s no impact possibility. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there are a&nbsp;<em>lot&nbsp;<\/em>of objects at zero or one on the Torino scale. Millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:40:39&nbsp; \/the earth is, a matter of fact, is being struck all the time. \/ the earth sweeps up about 15 tons of dust, meteor dust every day. 14:40:58&nbsp; \/ And occasionally, several times a year, something is large enough that it can survive passage through the atmosphere and deliver rocks to the surface of the earth that you can pick up as samples. And those are what we call meteorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And most of those are very tiny. Let\u2019s put it this way: Most asteroids entering our atmosphere couldn\u2019t take out a sand castle, let alone humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on a much broader time horizon\u2014hundreds, thousands, millions of years\u2014big asteroids do hit us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 13:53:01&nbsp; \/ Most famously, the\u2013 dinosaurs met their demise, we believe, 65 million years ago.\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 13:55:34&nbsp; \/Have there been any asteroids that did damage in more recent times?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 13:56:15&nbsp; Well, probably most people are familiar with the impact over Tunguska, Siberia in 1908. That object was about 50 meters across, or a little over 100, 150 feet across\u2013 that broke up in the atmosphere. \/ But the shock wave \/ did hit the ground and\u2013 do\u2013 do great damage on the ground.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>13:56:53&nbsp; And then more recently, in 2013 was an air blast over Chelyabinsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would be Chelyabinsk, Russia We\u2019ve got some truly spectacular videos of that one, thanks to Russian dashcams. See footnote 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Footnote 1: See, Russian citizens have a hit-and-run problem. You\u2019re driving along, and some idiot crashes into your car. But they don\u2019t want to deal with things like responsibility or consequences! So they just speed away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you try to get reimbursed by your insurance company, and guess what? They say, \u201cOh, SURE it was hit and run. You just crashed own car, and don\u2019t want to take blame. No money for you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Oh Suuuurrre it vas Chheet and rron. You just Crreshed OWN car. And ton\u2019t vunt to tek bllllame (whole tongue). No mahhhney for you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Slower, heaver.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Russians have their fair share of run-ins with corrupt highway cops, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And THAT is why millions of Russians now have dashboard cameras running all the time. So they can&nbsp;<em>prove&nbsp;<\/em>what happened if they get scammed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And THAT is why YouTube is full of amazing videos of the Chelyabinsk fireball making landfall in Russia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The sound of impact and alarmts: https:\/\/youtu.be\/fBLjB5qavxY?t=18<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>End of footnote 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway. In 2013, in Chelyabinsk, 1500 people were injured, and thousands of buildings were damaged. So, as Richard Binzel sums it up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BINZEL: 14:02:19&nbsp; The chances of your day being ruined by an asteroid impact are really very small. But if you think of our civilization over time scale of a century or more, then the chance of an impact is a few percent that something like another Chelyabinsk or Tunguska could be happening\u2013 again over the next century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So. In 2016, Congress authorized the creation of NASA\u2019s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Yes, that\u2019s a real place. As Jennifer Lawrence and Leo DiCaprio put it in the movie \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>About 6:00 in \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JLAW: \/the Planetary Defense Coordination Office? Is that a real place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LEO: I have no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>YES it\u2019s a real place! It\u2019s a department of NASA\u2019s Planetary Science Division, whose director is Dr. Lori Glaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:19:27&nbsp; \/ I have to say, when I hear that NASA has a planetary defense wing, I think it\u2019s more aliens. (LAUGH) I mean, it sounds like warfare, not bumping away rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:19:39&nbsp; Yeah. 14:20:31&nbsp; But Planetary Defense Coordination Office has the job of identifying any potential asteroids that are out there. 14:20:16&nbsp; \/we wanna be prepared if there were one that were gonna be potentially dangerous.\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14:22:27&nbsp; \/ NASA actually funds several telescopes that are dedicated to searching for potentially hazardous asteroids or new\u2013 objects that are out there. \/ There are also other people around the world that are looking for these\u2013 potentially hazardous asteroids all the time.\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:23:16&nbsp; So somebody somewhere has a big Excel spreadsheet with a list of everything we\u2019ve seen? (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:23:21&nbsp; Yes, we have what\u2019s called the Minor Planet Center\u2013 that keeps track of all of the objects that we know of.\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:24:56&nbsp; All right, so since I\u2019ve heard I was going to meet you, this is what I\u2019ve been wondering: Getting hit by an asteroid is a common layperson, deep-seated worry, along with all the other ways the world (LAUGH) could end. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:25:16&nbsp; It\u2019s probably not at the top of the list to worry about, getting hit by an asteroid. \/Right now, we don\u2019t know of any that are of significant size that are\u2013 potentially gonna hit the Earth anytime over the next hundred years or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well,&nbsp;<em>that\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em>good. But if it\u2019s nothing to worry about, why did NASA spend 325 million dollars on a special spacecraft, solely to discover if we can deflect an asteroid that\u2019s on a trajectory to hit us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:26:04&nbsp; Well, here\u2019s the\u2013 here\u2019s the problem that we have. Even though it\u2019s a low probability, it\u2019s a pretty serious consequence. So right now we don\u2019t feel like we have\u2013 an imminent threat from an asteroid. But we darn well wanna be ready if we find one that could be potentially dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:32:19&nbsp; Okay, great. So it seems like\u2013 \/ the best way not to get our planet demolished is not to blow up the asteroid, but to knock it to any other path, right? Like\u2013 like, speed it up a little, slow it down a little, change its angle a little. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:32:41&nbsp; All of those are good. \/ the most effective, we believe, will be to actually\u2013 try and slow it down a little bit. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14:33:15&nbsp; \/ if we could slow it down enough several years in advance\u2013 ten, 20, 30, 50 years in advance\u2013 just slow it down a tiny, tiny bit, then Earth will have already gone by when the asteroid crosses Earth\u2019s path. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing with DART.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA loves acronyms. DART stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Because its target is, in fact, a double asteroid. It\u2019s a huge rock called Didymos, which is Greek for \u201ctwin.\u201d It\u2019s a&nbsp;<em>big&nbsp;<\/em>mama\u2014about half a mile across, weighing 11 billion pounds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Didymos has a little moon of its own\u2014a moonlet\u2014called Dimorphos, which is Greek for \u201chaving two forms.\u201d That moonlet is the target for the DART mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, am I the only person who\u2019s gonna have trouble remembering which is which? Dimorphos. Didymos. I mean, come on, guys\u2014they\u2019re way too similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I did get this tip:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:38:42&nbsp; \/ We\u2019re going to hit Dimorphos, which is the moon of the larger asteroid. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 09:39:00&nbsp; \/ which I understand NASA people sometimes call Didymoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:39:08&nbsp; Yes. Didymoon is much, much cuter. (LAUGHTER) And bi\u2013 big fan of Didymoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s Dr. Elena Adams. She\u2019s NASA\u2019s lead engineer on the DART mission, and I\u2019m going to interpret that exchange as her permission to refer to Dimorphos\u2014that\u2019s the moonlet\u2014as Didymoon for the rest of this episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, the DART mission is a joint venture of NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. DART is basically a six-foot cube, wrapped in gold foil, with a camera on the bottom and two 19-foot solar panels. It lifted off in November 2021 atop a SpaceX booster\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>the liftoff: https:\/\/youtu.be\/E0OUvEh3HWk?t=3019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA: 3..2..1\u2026And \u2026liftoff, of the Falcon 9 and DART, on NASA\u2019s first planetary defense test to intentionally crash into an asteroid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026and took ten months to travel 107 million\/over 400 million miles, to rendezvous with the asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Clip from the 9\/26 NASA TV broadcast<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope you appreciate the difficulty of the DART mission. I mean, Didymos and Didymoon are hurtling through space at about 51,000 miles an hour. They orbit the sun, just as we do\u2014and the closest they ever come to us is about 7 million miles away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that little moon that we\u2019re gonna try to hit? We\u2019ve never even seen it! True! You can\u2019t see it with any telescope ever built. It\u2019s too small and too far away. There was no way to know its shape, color, mass, or what it\u2019s made of\u2014it could be solid rock, or metallic, or it could be a lumpy blob of gravel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:47:20&nbsp; And that\u2019s what makes this so challenging. Because \/ we also don\u2019t know what it\u2019s made out of. We don\u2019t know its shape. And how do you hit something that\u2013 where you don\u2019t even know its shape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>09:47:37&nbsp; \/ as an engineer, I hope it\u2019s a perfect sphere, because then you can hit directly in the center perfectly, like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 09:47:59&nbsp; Yeah. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:48:00&nbsp; Yeah. (LAUGHTER) One can dream. (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even Didymos, the bigger rock, is so far away that it shows up on our telescopes as just a couple of white pixels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only reason we even know that it&nbsp;<em>has&nbsp;<\/em>a moon<em>&nbsp;<\/em>is that when we point our telescopes at it, we see a brief dimming once every 12 hours or so. Which could only mean that something is passing in front of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:19:31&nbsp; \/ as the \/ little moon is coming in front of the bigger asteroid, the brightness actually dips. Because\u2013 this creates a shadow on top of the asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:19:50&nbsp; I see. So I could\u2013 even though I can\u2019t really see the moon\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:19:53&nbsp; Yeah. You know that something happened, because all of a sudden it just got dimmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:19:57&nbsp; Okay.\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:40:52&nbsp; \/ And that dimming is at 11 hours and 55 minutes. Right? So after we impact, we plan to change the orbit. \/ it will be something 11 hours and 45 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s right. The goal of the DART mission was supposed to be bumping the moonlet into a&nbsp;<em>closer orbit&nbsp;<\/em>to Didymos, so that it completes an orbit 10 minutes faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I visited NASA in September, they showed me models and animations of the six-foot DART spacecraft and the 560-foot moon it was designed to hit. I mean, the size differential was ridiculous.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:03:34&nbsp; It\u2013 it doesn\u2019t sound like your spacecraft could do very much to this gigantic thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:03:39&nbsp; That\u2019s right. \/10:03:51&nbsp; it\u2019s basically like throwing a tennis ball at a 747. If it goes fast enough, you\u2019re gonna move it. But it\u2019s gonna be a very slight change. \/10:04:13&nbsp; It\u2019s going to be just a few inches. \/ It\u2019s\u2013 it\u2019s really a super safe test. \/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:15:00&nbsp; Okay. So we\u2019re not talking about exploding or flying off. We\u2019re just nudging it a little\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:15:05&nbsp; No. Just a little nudge. Just a little nudge. A tap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:15:08&nbsp; Okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:04:13&nbsp; \/ It\u2019s a first test of can we actually do it? And what do we learn from this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:05:07&nbsp; \/&nbsp; How will the asteroid, you know, what kind of plume will you create? How much will that actually move an asteroid?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:04:50&nbsp; And we measure all of that. \/ Because\/ only recently has\u2013 have we been able to hit these really small things far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But wait\u2014we haven\u2019t even finished listing all the ways that make this mission HARD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll get to that\u2026after a break for ads. Hey\u2014someone\u2019s gotta pay the bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>BREAK<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was about to help you go slack-jawed in amazement at the&nbsp;<em>difficulty&nbsp;<\/em>of the DART mission to hit an asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, at the moment of impact, DART\u2019s speed is 14,000 miles an hour. And it takes 38 seconds for a signal from earth to travel that far. So NASA can\u2019t possibly pilot the DART spacecraft from the ground in real time. Instead\u2014DART will have to be self-driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:55:49&nbsp; \/ the last four hours of this mission are completely autonomous. \/ the spacecraft has to make its own decisions. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>09:56:11&nbsp; \/ SMART Nav, which is our autonavigation system on the spacecraft, does everything by itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>09:56:32&nbsp; \/ It points\u2013 our camera to the asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>09:56:48&nbsp; \/ And then it tells the spacecraft go there, or, you know, move to the left. Move to the right. 09:57: \/ And\u2013 we on the ground will be sweating a lot. (LAUGH) \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 09:58:55&nbsp; \/ So in theory, if e\u2013 everything goes well on your \/ video, you\u2019ll be seeing, you know, this rock getting bigger, bigger, bigger. And then the feed goes dead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:59:08&nbsp; Yes. Yes. \/ 09:59:43&nbsp; \/ You will hear people cheering, because it\u2013 you can\u2019t stop people cheering at that point, because that means that, okay, we\u2019ve lost the signal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, and there\u2019s one more problem. We don\u2019t know exactly where the moonlet will&nbsp;<em>be&nbsp;<\/em>in its orbit at the time of impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:01:19&nbsp; So \/ it won\u2019t happen that Didymoon is on the\u2013 behind the big rock?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:01:26&nbsp; You just described my nightmare. (LAUGHTER) Behind or in front. Because the asteroid itself is actually\u2013 really bright. The bigger asteroid is gonna be brighter than the smaller asteroid. So the\u2013 as the small asteroid passes in front of\u2013 in front of it, we won\u2019t be able to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:01:45&nbsp; Or if it passes in the back, we won\u2019t be able to hit it. Because there\u2019s another rock in the way. So, yes. \/ people have been observing this asteroid\/ since 1996. \/ So they think they understand the phase, which is where that asteroid is. \/ And they know it within about 10%, we think. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, the DART spacecraft has a big ol\u2019 camera on the bottom. That\u2019s how it sees its way to Didymoon. But everyone was well aware that that camera would never broadcast the impact itself or the aftermath, because\u2014well, you know\u2014if we\u2019re lucky, it\u2019ll have smashed itself to smithereens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on this particular mission, there was going to be a witness: a separate camera off to the side.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:52:41&nbsp; \/ So we have\u2013 a little friend. It\u2019s called a LICIACube cubesat. And\u2013 it was provided to us by the Italian Space Agency.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 09:54:36&nbsp; What\u2019s the internal NASA nickname?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:54:39&nbsp; Oh, SelfieSat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 09:54:40&nbsp; SelfieSat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 09:54:40&nbsp; Yeah. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\/09:54:07&nbsp; \/ So we\u2019re very hopeful that they\u2019ll be able to capture the moment of\u2013 us impact\u2013 impacting the asteroid, but also creating the giant plume of stuff that\u2019s gonna come out after we impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SelfieSat rode into space on board the DART craft. And then, two weeks before the asteroid impact, it popped out of a slot on DART like a piece of toast, and parked itself in position to take some pix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, that selfie sat is only the beginning of DART\u2019s surprises. Its primary mission, of course, was supposed to be deflecting an asteroid for the first time in human history. But it would also carry a veritable science fair of technology demos that could be useful in future space missions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:08:06&nbsp; \/ One might say we\u2019re a bit of a Christmas tree of technology demonstrations. We are demonstrating\u2013 the large\u2013 NEXT-C, next generation ion thruster.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, she said ion thruster. That\u2019s actually a thing. It uses electricity to accelerate ions for propulsion. Ion drives don\u2019t supply a ton of power, but they\u2019re super fuel-efficient\u2014so for long space journeys, they can fire continuously for a long time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:08:53&nbsp; And is that the thruster we\u2019re using to get to the asteroid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:08:56&nbsp; Oh, no. Not at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:08:57&nbsp; No? (LAUGH) It\u2019s just an experiment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:08:59&nbsp; It\u2013 it is just an experiment. \/ it could be used for future missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology demos also include a super-powered dish antenna, a new improved core computer, and those two solar panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:10:30&nbsp; \/ so usually solar arrays are very rigid. \/ But\u2013 these arrays are actually blankets that are rolled on tubes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\/10:49:08&nbsp; \/ When they\u2019re first installed in the spacecraft, it looks like a tube\u2013 two tubes on the sides of the spacecraft. And after the spacecraft separation from the launch vehicle, from the rocket\u2013 we roll them out and\u2013 one at a time. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:10:49&nbsp; And you deploy them like snap bracelets. They\u2013 they roll out and then they snap. \/ They\u2019re super lightweight. So for future missions to\u2013 the outer solar system, you know, NASA is very interested in going to the Uranus system next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:11:07&nbsp; \/ For those missions, these solar arrays are really enablers, because they\u2019re so lightweight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And here\u2019s the weird part. When you see a picture of the DART spacecraft, those two big snap-bracelet solar panels look like its wings, like a dragonfly\u2019s wings. But it turns out that 90% of their area is completely unnecessary for the mission of crashing into an asteroid. All that power is used exclusively for the ion drive experiment! If we weren\u2019t testing the ion thrusters on this trip, DART would need only tiny stubby solar panels for its own use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OK\u2014and now\u2026 the moment I\u2019ve all been waiting for\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brass fanfare, please<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026a flash back to September 26, 2022, when DART was supposed to crash into Didymoon. You\u2019re about to find out whether the Double Asteroid Redirection Test hit the spot\u2014or missed, and sailed off stupidly into space. See footnote 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Footnote 2: yes, NASA did have a plan if that happened. It would wait a couple years until Didymos came back around the sun again\u2014and give it another shot. End Footnote 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let\u2019s recap. The goal was to send a 1200-pound, six-foot cube, 7 million miles from earth, traveling at 4 miles per second, to crash into a rock that\u2019s 560 feet in diameter, flying at 14 miles a second. A spacecraft whose body and software were made during the pandemic lockdown. And a rock, by the way, that we\u2019ve never seen. Shape unknown, material unknown.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OK\u2026so now let me take you to the Mission Operations Center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore, on that night. Elena Adams is standing beside her workstation, overseeing the engineers in their blue NASA shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=1339&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>EMCEE: Now if you\u2019re just joining us, we\u2019re under an hour away from the DART spacecraft\u2019s head-on collision with the asteroid Dimorphos. \/ And you\u2019re watching a live stream of its approach to Dimorphos.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, the NASA livestream is showing the live video from DART\u2019s camera. Maybe the word \u201cvideo\u201d is generous\u2014the frame rate is 1 image per second, and all you\u2019re seeing so far is a single white pixel in the middle of the black screen. But I mean, come on. It\u2019s an asteroid 7 million miles away. Don\u2019t be a snob.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=1346&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>EMCEE: DART\u2019s mission is a test of a planetary defense technique that could one day save humanity. Rest assured, the test poses no threat to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>30 minutes to impact. That one white dot is now a white pea on a black background. You still can\u2019t see Didymoon\u2014only the main asteroid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=2448&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SAMSON: We have 30 minutes to go until impact, and \/so far, so good. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>25 minutes to impact. NASA cuts to Elena Adams in the operations center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=2905&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ELENA: \/ We\u2019ve locked on Dimorphos, we are maneuvering towards it, and yeah, everything\u2019s looking really good. \/ We\u2019ve executed two burns, and everything\u2019s looking on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>18 minutes to impact. Now you can see, for the first time, a second dot\u2014one faint gray pixel\u2014above and to the right of the asteroid. SmartNAV sees it and locks on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=3380&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Agent: Go ahead, MS5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MS5: We have precision lock, and still tracking Dimorphos. (Applause, cheering)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eight minutes to impact. Our friend Lori Glaze, NASA\u2019s director of planetary science, describes what the engineers are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4031&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: \/ And they\u2019re also thinking about reassessing continuously what\u2019s the probabilitly of miss? Right? As you get closer and closer, that probability should look smaller and smaller, and it is. \/It looks really, really good right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five minutes to impact. Here\u2019s Elena Adams again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4277&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ELENA: 5 min to impact, 5 min to impact. We are at 1100 miles away! (applause) Also our window for sending any commands to the spacecraft is done! Contingencies are done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Some music from here to the end would not be amiss\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, there\u2019s no mistaking what we see from DART\u2019s camera: Didymos has a moon. The big asteroid looked like a gray avocado\u2014but up and to the right is a mini-avocado, about one-twentieth the size. That\u2019s Didymoon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4331&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: But you\u2019ve been watching it over the last 30-45 minutes go from just a collection of individual pixels, and now you can actually see the shape and the shading and texture\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two minutes to impact. SmartNAV takes its little software hands off the wheel and folds them in its little software lap. The time for aiming is over. There\u2019s nothing more it, or anyone, can do, but wait for impact.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4405&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: This\u2019ll be \/ humanity\u2019s first ever, ever attempt at trying to move another celestial body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One minute to impact. Oh man. We are now so close, the main asteroid isn\u2019t even in the picture anymore. It\u2019s all Didymoon, filling the screen. And the detail\u2014incredible. The thing is clearly egg-shaped, titled 45 degrees, bright at the top right, shaded at lower left. But it\u2019s not smooth like an egg\u2014this thing is studded with craggy boulders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4544&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: It\u2019s amazing, guys! Oh my goodness, look at that. Unbelievable. Yeah.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: Looks to me like we\u2019re headed straight in. \/ Oh, wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now the little moon is enormous, filling the screen. Absolutely coated in rocks and crags\u2014it looks maybe like a dough ball rolled in coconut.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 5, 4, 3, 2\u20261!\u2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet we\u2019re&nbsp;<em>still&nbsp;<\/em>getting closer! Now we\u2019re seeing individual pebbles! Actual dusty pavement-looking stuff. And closer, and closer, and sharper and sharper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: Oh my gosh! WOOOO!!! (cheers)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final frame of video starts to appear\u2014but all we get is a strip of it at the top of the frame\u2014the rest of the screen goes solid red.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amid the cheering, you can hear Elena Adams, arms up in the air, yelling\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: WE HAVE IMPACT!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DART&#039;s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4RA8Tfa6Sck?start=4661&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>TEAM: Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Fade out, end the music.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, the first pictures from the Italian selfie bot arrived, taken a couple of minutes&nbsp;<em>after&nbsp;<\/em>impact. They were a little blurry, but they unmistakably showed a big bright Didymos\u2014with a very splatty-looking ashy plume from the point of impact on Diddymoon. Those shots will keep NASA scientists busy for months or years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took NASA a few more weeks of collecting data measurements before we knew just how much that dead-on, head-on collision shifted the moonlet\u2019s orbit. It turns out\u2014ten minutes, exactly as they\u2019d hoped. Didymoon now takes 11 hours and 45 minutes to go around Didymos, instead of 11:55. We puny humans changed the orbit of a celestial body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, there are other ways to shift an asteroid\u2019s trajectory besides crashing into it. NASA is also studying something called the gravity tractor technique, where you fly a heavy spacecraft alongside, and let your slight gravitational pull drag the asteroid slightly off course over a long period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or maybe we could attach an ion thruster to the asteroid, just like the one that DART itself tested. Or we could&nbsp;<em>paint&nbsp;<\/em>the asteroid white, and let the infinitesimal pressure of the sun\u2019s rays shift its course over many years. And, yes, there are even certain situations where we could consider\u2026 the Hollywood technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cArmageddon\u201d at 19:30&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ACTOR: Why don\u2019t we just send up 150 nuclear warheads and blast that rock apart?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, it\u2019s kind of a relief to know that we&nbsp;<em>have&nbsp;<\/em>a planetary defense organization. And you know what? According to NASA\u2019s Lori Glaze, so do other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:46:43&nbsp; There are\u2013 there is\u2013 a whole organization of\u2013 \/ countries from all over that have joined the International Asteroid Warning Network. And they all work together. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 14:47:03&nbsp; Really? Does that include our enemies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:47:06&nbsp; It includes the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I should also reiterate that at this point, we\u2019ve already spotted the&nbsp;<em>big&nbsp;<\/em>asteroids that could kill us all; now the work is finding the smaller ones that could take out a city.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LORI: 14:37:17&nbsp; \/the ones that really are kind of civilization-ending size asteroids, we know\u2013 we\u2019ve already found 99% of those. \/\/ The smaller ones that could have regional damage, re\u2013 regional\u2013 you know, impacts, \/ there are some out there that we don\u2019t know about.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14:35:17&nbsp; \/ So we\u2019re actually right now already building the next telescope, a space telescope \/ called the Near Earth Object Surveyor. 14:35:39&nbsp; \/ to search the sky 24 hours a day.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14:35:39&nbsp; \/ We should be able to get\u2013 to find up to 90% of those objects within a period of about ten years, once we get flying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, speaking of next steps\u2014in 2024, the European Space Agency plans to return to the Didymos asteroid with a robotic spacecraft called Hera, which will fly along for a closer look at the damage the DART did. It\u2019ll check out the crater we made, and see if we can figure out Didymoon\u2019s exact mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for mission director Elena Adams, it\u2019s time for a new phase: studying the data, putting science to work, and maybe getting some sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:55:03&nbsp; But I do have to say, I do love my job for smashing such\u2013 you know, you build up this spacecraft and it\u2019s\u2013 it\u2019s like a Ferrari, right? It\u2019s\u2013 (LAUGH) it\u2019s just a beautiful piece of equipment. And then the\u2013 the whole point of it is to go smash into a rock. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: 10:55:17&nbsp; That\u2019s sad. (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADAMS: 10:55:19&nbsp; But also kinda glorious. (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_390\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-138-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3\">https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/?powerpress_pinw=138-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"unsungscience-20230317.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>65 million years ago, an asteroid struck the earth; in the ensuing planetary darkness, the dinosaurs went extinct. But the dinosaurs didn\u2019t have a space program.<span class=\"excerpt-more-link\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/17\/nasa-redirects-an-asteroid\/\">More <svg class=\"svg-icon\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" focusable=\"false\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M6.96954 10.2804L11.9999 15.3107L17.0302 10.2804L15.9695 9.21973L11.9999 13.1894L8.0302 9.21973L6.96954 10.2804Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"excerpt-audio-block\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20230317.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}