NASA's DART mission and ESA's Hera follow-up for planetary defense

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully impacted an asteroid at a speed of 20,000 kilometers per hour. The primary goal of this collision was to test the feasibility of altering an asteroid's trajectory as a method of planetary defense. While the impact caused a disruption in the asteroid's movement, scientific data regarding the precise effectiveness of the redirection remained to be fully analyzed. To gather comprehensive data, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Hera mission in October 2024. Hera is scheduled to arrive at the site in November to perform a detailed survey of the impact results. Dr. Patrick Michel, the scientific lead for the Hera mission, stated that these combined efforts aim to establish a viable planetary defense strategy. The mission serves as a critical test to prove that human technology can protect Earth from potential asteroid impacts.