MANKIND'S LEAP

We woke up to the heartwarming news of NASA's DART spacecraft – the world's first planetary defense technology demonstration – finding it's target asteroid Dimorphos, yesterday, 26th September 2022, duly completing it's 10-month space sojourn... 

Just to think of the calculations and the logistics, being certainly mind boggling to say the least, this success could be considered as, to my mind, yet another giant leap for mankind, after the Apollo 11 of 1969 and the Perseverance Rover of 2020...

A vending machine sized spacecraft striking almost the centre of a celestial body the size of a football field situated at a distance of over 10 million kilometers, in an attempt to change it's course to keep our planet out of harm's way, is just incredible and praiseworthy stuff... 

The mission, however, is far from over. Images and data are awaited in the coming days and weeks to see if Dimorphos's orbit has actually shifted. The disintegrated DART had carried with it a small Italian satellite LICIACube for sending pre and post collision pictures The European Space Agency Hera is to visit it in 2026...

Whether Dimorphos has veered or not, this maiden attempt by humankind to change the motion of space bodies, in more ways than one, indicates our resolve and efforts to prevent further doomsday collisions...

And finally, no praise would be too high for the entire NASA team for their untiring efforts to make the project see the light of the day with such phenomenal success...

🙏🙏

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