Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave
Thanks Garry.
Sounds wasteful. I thought the blow it up or similar approach was looked upon unfavorably. It think it is the Myth Buster mentality ruling research here...
Alex
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Hi Alex,
When you read the story, certainly the plan is not to blow anything up.
The impactor will only have a tiny amount of mass compared to the 160m
diameter rock but travelling at 6km/s it should have enough momentum to
create an impact crater and create a small deflection which they will
measure with a second spacecraft.
When you think about it, ideally you don't want too much debris flying
off when the two collide, but instead you would hope the asteroid
would fully absorb most of the energy in order to deflect it by the maximum
amount the energy provides.
They hope to alter Didymos's orbit by about half a millimeter per second.
The spacecraft are apparently powered by solar energy arrays that
provide propulsion to an electric ion engine.
See also
https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart