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jtr489 t1_irxbtqk wrote

This is one small step for planetary defense! Of course with an asteroid strike early detection is key. Hopefully that will continue to improve.

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threebillion6 t1_irxmq4k wrote

Heavier satellites, faster speeds, this is honestly great because we know a lot about the physics of it. The only thing is the actual density of the asteroid is the thing I was surprised about recently. I can't wait to see what comes out of this. Maybe we can redirect nukes to deflect dangerous asteroids instead of shoot them at each other? Are our icbms capable of that?

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Evil_Dolphin t1_irxqynb wrote

Warheads sure, but ICBM's are really only capable of planetary travel.

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kingdead42 t1_irxvkro wrote

You could even say they're really only designed for inter-continental travel.

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DontToewsMeBro2 t1_irz7brn wrote

I think just hitting it with a big object going fast would be more predictable than a warhead. Let’s send a shrink wrapped package of all garbage on earth at 55,000mph. It’d create a garbage planet, we can call it Oscar.

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threebillion6 t1_irzr08t wrote

But what if the first ball of garbage doesn't disintegrate and is sent on a collision course to Earth in a thousand years?

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FloofBagel t1_irzusce wrote

And some really fucking old scientist goes to a symposium with a invention he already invented last year and has to improvise and makes a telescope for smell instead of sight

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krumpdawg t1_iry1syy wrote

Probably use some kind of nuclear device just because of its energy density and the amount of energy required to shift an asteroids orbit.

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Bebop3141 t1_iryru6j wrote

You don’t want to blow up asteroids. Aside from the risk of reformation, there’s no guarantee that it will even break up solely into pieces small enough to not cause serious damage because it is hard to tell what asteroids are actually made of. Hence, the DART project, which tries to move the whole asteroid.

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olbettyboop t1_irys8jf wrote

You don’t try to blow it up. You use the force of the explosion to nudge it off course just like the DART program did. It’s on NASA’s interplanetary defense website.

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Replop t1_is01sjz wrote

There was a fun cold war movie about it .

While earth is threatened by an asteroid, Russian - USA discussions happens on cooperation to defend our planet. Rough quote:

"We all knows no one has nuclear weapons in orbit, as it is forbidden by treaty XXX

But in the hypothesis some nuclear weapons actually existed in orbit anyway... how good would they perform against an asteroid ?"

In the end, >!maybe 50 % of the nukes randomly failed before reaching the asteroid!<

Not sure of the exact movie, probably [Meteor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_(film))

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LilG1984 t1_irybuox wrote

Damn I was hoping it would take a misfit team of deep core drillers with explosives to stop the asteroid....

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Janus_The_Great t1_iryn6wo wrote

... and shatter it into a thousand smaller but still devastating meteorites...

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Mr_Ted_Stickle t1_irz68io wrote

because i’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when i’ll be back again

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Random-Explosion-ect t1_is0c3i4 wrote

Dont wanna close my eyes, don’t wanna falll asleep cause I miss you baby, and I don’t wanna miss a thang

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Gari_305 OP t1_irxch6d wrote

From the Article

>The Space craft that NASA deliberately crashed into an asteroid last month succeeded in nudging the rock moonlet out of its orbit -- the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body, NASA chief announced on Tuesday

Which leads to an interesting question, would this methodology be the basis for future endeavors to nudge other asteroids out of its orbit, should that celestial body threatened Earth in the future years to come?

Since other countries particularly China doing the same thing in 2026 how would such actions affect both geopolitical and outer space policy?

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Lindo_MG t1_irxmolm wrote

Depends if they use it with ulterior motives, territory grabbing in the solar system under the guise of “planetary defense”

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CardNGold t1_irxkls4 wrote

What if by altering the trajectory we have unknowingly doomed another civilization?

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sixtyeightwest t1_irxovtr wrote

Then we just accidentally fired the first asteroid in a future war of the worlds. So long and thanks for all the fish.

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whatshamilton t1_irxt28g wrote

The moment it happened I wondered only half-jokingly if this was the Shot Heard Around The Universe, the moment when extraterrestrials say “we’ll those earthlings have finally entered the universal race. Let’s go, girls.”

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Temporary_Kangaroo_3 t1_irxlk17 wrote

civilizations either end up like us, where we are technologically advanced and can defend against planet killers like this, but inevitably suck up all our planets resources and kill ourselves.

&#x200B;

Or, they're a peaceful, harmonious civilization where they live in symbiosis with their own planet, but the planet killing asteroid eventually dooms them.

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Replop t1_is020fw wrote

You know of other civilizations in our solar system ?

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CardNGold t1_is1dewn wrote

Do you know for certain there are not?

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Replop t1_is2gisa wrote

No, but as we didn't detect anything for now, they are either ....

  • Absent

  • Advanced enough to hide : They could probably handle another rock hitting their world.

  • Primitive, enough they probably wouldn't have built a civilization yet. ( bacterial colonies in old lava tubes on Mars, random lifeforms in the oceans of Europa, under the ice surface ? )

Who knows ?

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kotoandjuri t1_irzhojw wrote

As long as we don't cover it in Martian stealth composites, they'll be able to detect the asteroid.

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[deleted] t1_is0xdzb wrote

I just imagined it coming back next and hitting us cuz we nudged it into collision 😂

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Dewnami t1_irz6ecn wrote

You know this has always bothered me with deflecting asteroids. We are altering the destiny of the universe. Our deflection could very well be the demise of another civilization.

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JackD4wkins t1_irzjjqd wrote

This asteroid is locked in orbit around our sun.... it will literally never leave our solar system, and therefore can never threaten a single living thing ever. Hope you can finally stop worrying about this issue now

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Bensemus t1_is7q8kl wrote

That's only because you don't understand it at all. Look into the mission properly.

DART smashed into a small asteroid that is orbiting a larger one which is orbiting the Sun. The smaller asteroid's orbit was shrunk from ~12h to ~11.5h. It's still gravitationally bound to the larger asteroid which is still gravitationally bound to the Sun. Nothing was really changed. There was never any danger in drastically altering this asteroids orbit and put it on a collision course with Earth.

Saying we altered the destiny of the universe is beyond egotistical.

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LilSpermCould t1_irxke55 wrote

If we got our collective shit together as a species we could be mining these things in 20 years...

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onehalfofacouple t1_is0ae9t wrote

We don't have time for that, we're too busy telling each other what to do and hating one another for minor differences in appearance and opinion.

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Fuylo88 t1_irzlo1z wrote

Does this not imply that it's possible to weaponize a non-world-ending object too?

Lol good time to toss one at Russia and act like you have no idea what happened. No I am not serious.

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gravitydropper268 t1_is25p5a wrote

I think it's a lot easier to make an asteroid miss a target than to make one hit a target.

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Fuylo88 t1_is2amg4 wrote

Yeah I think that capability is a long way off. The benefit of no nuclear fallout is at least a thing if it turned out to be possible.

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NO_SPACE_B4_COMMA t1_iryd0ap wrote

So we don't have to drill a hole in it and drop a bomb? Sweet!

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cavegoatlove t1_irxk9xq wrote

So , what is it’s trajectory now? They wouldn’t have knocked into a harmful path would they?

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Surur t1_irxkqkp wrote

It was orbiting another astroid. Now it's orbiting the same astroid faster.

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PurpEL t1_irxoz64 wrote

It's off to extinct dinosaurs on some distant planet

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Replop t1_is023nf wrote

You know of dinosaurs in any planet of our solar system ?

If it hit Isla Nublar, I'd say we just shot ourselves in the foot.

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toby_wan_kenoby t1_iryw29d wrote

They should be able to calculate the density of said moon. The input energy is a known and now the new orbit is known. Hence the weight of the moon should be known and the volume should be measurable. Voila...

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[deleted] t1_iryw7h5 wrote

Good job NASA. Now if we can get humans to not annihilate our planet, we will be in good shape.

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Biogorilla t1_irz2hh7 wrote

I've legitimately seen people crying about this being a waste of money. The same ones who cry about every dollar spent on space exploration. The "Durrr... Wat bout problams down here?" crowd.

Apparently acquiring the ability to save the planet from destruction and the human race from possible extinction is still not worth it to them.

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satori0320 t1_is0v36r wrote

Aren't those the same people who drive a 6500lb V8 that get 10 miles to the gallon road warrior special?

Yet they always have an opinion on shit they barely understand.

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Jishuah t1_irzrhwk wrote

Since this was a “proof of concept” and even though it says that the asteroid was only moved “10’s of meters,” I am assuming this is still a pretty significant discovery as well as a big fucking deal?

I have no relevant knowledge to contextualize the figures put in the article, I would imagine that they can figure out from this trial run how big of a payload it would require to move an asteroid off a collision course with earth?

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FuturologyBot t1_irxh6e3 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Gari_305:

From the Article

>The Space craft that NASA deliberately crashed into an asteroid last month succeeded in nudging the rock moonlet out of its orbit -- the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body, NASA chief announced on Tuesday

Which leads to an interesting question, would this methodology be the basis for future endeavors to nudge other asteroids out of its orbit, should that celestial body threatened Earth in the future years to come?

Since other countries particularly China doing the same thing in 2026 how would such actions affect both geopolitical and outer space policy?

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/y1h8fh/nasa_says_dart_mission_succeeded_in_altering/irxch6d/

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skexzies t1_irz6u4r wrote

NASA's version of, "Hey y'all, watch this". Glad to know that F=MA is still a thing.

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Bensemus t1_is7qopo wrote

That little formula hides how complex the calculation was. This was a much larger change than was expected but still within error margins.

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Comrade_Starzz t1_irzcjl8 wrote

Was this asteroid gonna hit earth if we didn’t nudge it? Or was it really just a test like they said

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Bensemus t1_is7qqra wrote

No reason to think it wasn't a test. Not everything is a conspiracy.

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[deleted] t1_irzdig7 wrote

Meanwhile I was drinking with Bender. He aimed his exhaust at the sky and solved global warming. NASA 1 Bender 1

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racoons_on_NMN t1_irzufl2 wrote

It was a tiny asteroid, though not a planet buster.

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lllNico t1_irzwbsk wrote

it is now heading straight to earth and will wipe out 89% of all intelligent life, leaving tge rest of us to rebuild, like the ancient texts promised

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RachelRegina t1_is06as7 wrote

This is the point in the movie when the ghost of a dinosaur killed by the Chicxulub impact finally gets to cross over, their business no longer unfinished

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GoodMerlinpeen t1_is08q0s wrote

The bad news? It altered the asteroid's trajectory which is now hurtling towards... you guessed it: Frank Stallone.

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Snips4md t1_is0hc8n wrote

NASA has been useless since the moonlanding

Meanwhile

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zanzabarism t1_is0ldzr wrote

Alright let’s start terraforming mars, Start running giant water logged asteroids into it.

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JimBeam823 t1_is0nqwq wrote

We lost Bruce Willis, but the mission was a success.

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chriztaphason t1_iu3bson wrote

Anyone find it kind of suspicious that dart was tested 6 weeks before an asteroid "RM4" will come within six moons away from us. November 1, 6:30 pm u.s.. Also uA10 that came within 4.5 million miles October 27th. They would tell us.... Right??? 🥺🥺🥺

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DisasterDalek t1_irxzdva wrote

And now this one change will cause a chain reaction that causes a storm of meteors to rain down in X years lol

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turtleman777 t1_iry3tfa wrote

You've been watching too much Sci-fi. Asteroids in the asteroid belt are on average millions of miles apart. The chances of that happening are astronomically low.

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DisasterDalek t1_iry66b9 wrote

So wait, you're telling me Armageddon wasn't a documentary? My whole life has been a lie

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turtleman777 t1_iry78mj wrote

Sorry burst your bubble, I'm sure you would have preferred to live in ignorance

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donttouchmyhohos t1_iry53en wrote

Pretty sure you took that serious when it wasnt.

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SeryVober t1_irxp9hg wrote

I wish I had $330,000,000 to just crash into an asteroid.

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sillypenpalname t1_irxpmaa wrote

It isn't just crashing a bunch of money into an asteroid. It's learning how to possibly protect humanity. The sun of money is small compared to the problem it will hopefully never have to solve.

The "money spent in space is wasted crowd" need to keep their opinions to themselves

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whatshamilton t1_irxukub wrote

And they should get rid of all the tech they only have because of money spent in space, which spun off patents they benefit from on a daily basis

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SeryVober t1_irxq0yd wrote

It’s not an opinion it’s a statement… I genuinely wish I had $330,000,000 that I could afford to just throw away… I dig the Karen vibes though so thumbs up to you.

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AnimiLimina t1_irxsw3f wrote

That’s the problem, you would throw the money away. NASA used it for something useful.

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SeryVober t1_irxtda4 wrote

As if. If I had that kind of money laying around I’d be investing in my community.

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whatshamilton t1_irxuw8p wrote

The community which could be flattened by an asteroid. Go invest your own money in the community. Go vote for politicians who don’t spend your taxpayer money on giving tanks to the police officers. There is a lot of wasted money in this world. This mission was not an example of it.

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Hsoltow t1_irzh3b2 wrote

*Armored vehicles. Tanks are not available from the LESO program.

https://www.dla.mil/Disposition-Services/Offers/Law-Enforcement/Program-FAQs/

>What excess military items are not available through the LESO/1033 Program?
>
>DLA has determined that 133 Federal Supply Classes (FSC) are prohibited for transfer to law enforcement agencies because of their tactical military characteristics.
>
>Prohibited equipment includes: any aircraft, vessels or vehicles that inherently contain weaponry, (e.g. -----> tanks <-----, Bradley fighting vehicles, armed drones); crew served/large caliber (.50 cal or greater) weapons and ammunition; military uniforms; body armor; Kevlar helmets; and explosives or pyrotechnics of any kind. Also, aircraft and vehicles available in the program are “demilitarized,” meaning that any specific military technology (e.g. communication equipment) are removed prior to transfer to law enforcement agencies.

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whatshamilton t1_irxth1j wrote

It’s not a Karen vibe, it’s a fact — it isn’t money thrown away, it’s invested. I understand what you’re saying, it’s a lot of money. But you’re being flippant about the fact that there are 50,000 asteroids large enough to wipe out a city that could strike earth. Within the last year or two we missed one because of the angle it was coming at us with the sun at its back, and if we hadn’t been lucky with the trajectory we would have been a species in mourning. This isn’t throwing money away. It is developing a necessary defense, and along the way in these kinds of innovations NASA develops tech that is used for things like the phone you are probably reading this on, which you throw away money on monthly.

Edit to add a link with more info. The 50,000 number comes from the fact that we’ve identified under 30,000 near-Earth asteroids over 460 feet, and estimate we’ve only identified about 40% of them. And that’s only over 460 feet. The one that caused all that damage in Russia a few years ago was less than 15% that size and caused $33,000,000 in damage — only one tenth the cost of NASA’s mission

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SeryVober t1_irxty5d wrote

I was referring to the generalization and the whole “… needs to keep their opinions to themselves” as a Karen vibe. As they were literally just tossing around one of their opinions where as I was just making a statement.

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whatshamilton t1_irxuqc3 wrote

Well then you wouldn’t be part of the “money is wasted in space” crowd, so why did you get defensive enough about that to lash out with the weak Karen line?

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SeryVober t1_irxvhr6 wrote

So I get attacked for making a comment and I rebuttal but I’m the problem? This is what’s wrong with society.

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whatshamilton t1_iry7e99 wrote

“Space exploration is a waste of money.” “No it’s not and here’s why.” “This is what’s wrong with society.” I think you’re missing a few steps in that proof, bud

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SeryVober t1_iry9cow wrote

I never once said it was a waste of money so go ahead and assume/put words in peoples mouth.

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whatshamilton t1_iry9mu4 wrote

You have said in various comments to various people that it is thrown away, that you would have invested it in your community. If you don’t mean by that that it was a waste then you should reconsider your language because that is what you are communicating. It’s the fun thing about humanity where we understand more than the literal words.

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SeryVober t1_iry9swo wrote

You literally misquoted me. I never said “space exploration is a waste of money”

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HomesickWanderlust t1_irzjoyf wrote

“What is wrong with society?” If everywhere you go smells bad, check the bottom of your shoe.

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krumpdawg t1_iry203k wrote

"Throw away", is that what you think happened to that money spent on the DART mission?

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