Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

What you need to know about NASA’s dry run to save us from armageddon

NASA is launching a spacecraft the size of a golf cart to crash into an asteroid, which could tell us what to do if one ever did hit Earth.

NASA is launching an extraordinary mission on Wednesday to knock an asteroid slightly off course.

While it may sound like the plot to a science fiction film that ends in tragedy, this first real-world experiment is safe, scientists say.

A spacecraft the size of a golf cart will blast off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday at 10.20 pm PST (Wednesday 7 am CET) before travelling 10 months on a collision course with an asteroid.

Here is all you need to know about the mission, which is called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test).

Why do we need to knock into an asteroid?


The asteroid that will be knocked off course is six million miles away and is no threat to Earth now, scientists say, adding that the DART mission will not make it a danger either.

"First and foremost, these asteroids are not a threat to the Earth, They are no danger to earth,” said Nancy Chabot, DART coordination lead, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

“They are not on a path to hit the Earth in the foreseeable future. That makes them an appropriate target for a first test. But what really makes these asteroids ideal for this first test, it's because it's a double asteroid system," she said at a press conference.


While the asteroid and mission pose no threat to the planet, scientists want to see how its direction changes after being hit, so that if one day an asteroid is heading our way we may know what to do to avert disaster.

"The DART mission is about demonstrating deflection of an asteroid, changing its course, and doing it by hitting it with a spacecraft,” said Andy Cheng, DART investigation team lead, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory during a press conference.

“So the DART spacecraft has to hit the asteroid, then DART has to measure the amount of deflection and then we want to understand why that deflection came about, how it works. So, it's all about measuring the momentum transfer," he added.

Scientists say this could help in the future.


What will happen on the mission?


A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry DART into space, which will head to the asteroid Didymos, which circles the sun just outside of Earth's orbital path.

DART will spend about 10 months travelling towards the asteroid. But DART will crash into Didymos’s smaller asteroid called Dimophos at a speed of approximately 6.6 km/s.

In short, the spacecraft will aim for the larger asteroid to orient itself and in the final hour will detect and switch course towards the smaller one.

Researchers will then be able to measure changes in the orbital relationship between Dimorphos and Didymos, which will help them to calculate how this tactic could divert an asteroid from hitting Earth.

Could an asteroid hit Earth one day?


NASA has tracked almost all of the asteroids that could be large enough to damage Earth. But while there are no big asteroids heading our way in the foreseeable future that could change life as we know it, there are smaller ones that have yet to be found that have the potential to wipe out a city.

The DART mission could help prevent that.


"If one day an asteroid is discovered on a collision course with Earth - and we have an idea of how big that asteroid is, and how fast it's coming, and when it would hit, that kind of information - then we will have an idea how much momentum we need to make that asteroid miss the Earth," Cheng said.

NASA says while no known asteroid larger than 140 m in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, only about 40 percent of those asteroids have been found as of October 2021.

What happens after the mission?


In 2024, the European Space Agency is expected to launch another mission to travel to the two asteroids and will observe the crater on Dimorphos and determine the mass of the asteroid.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×