[아이뉴스24 정종오 기자] The era of asteroid exploration is opening up. NASA’s asteroid exploration, which is at the forefront in the field of space science, is currently focused on three main areas.
The first consists of a mission to change the orbit by artificially colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid; the second is a project to explore asteroids that come very close to the Earth; and the third is a project to identify metal-rich asteroids.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was launched on November 24, last year. DART is an experiment that attempts to change the orbit of an asteroid by forcibly impacting it. A spacecraft designed to artificially collide with an asteroid. It is a kind of experimental spacecraft to prevent possible Earth collision in advance.
DART will fly close to ‘Didymos’, an asteroid with a diameter of 780m, and ‘Dimorphos’, a satellite of Didymos, with a diameter of 160m, around the end of September. DART will collide with Dimorphus in late September or early October, when the asteroid is closest to Earth.
In April 2029, the asteroid ‘Apophis’ is approaching the Earth at a distance of 31,600 km. It almost glides across the earth. As such, it is an asteroid that is attracting the attention of space scientists. Korea also made a plan for the Apophis probe, but unfortunately it did not pass the preliminary feasibility study. NASA is sending the Osiris-Rex spacecraft to Apophis.
A probe is also being prepared to explore the asteroid 16 Psyche in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is also called a ‘gold mine asteroid’ because it is made of iron and nickel.
NASA recently announced that it was delaying the launch of the Psyche probe, which it was scheduled to launch this year. It explained that the schedule was delayed due to the late supply of spacecraft flight software and experimental equipment. Accordingly, it was predicted that this year’s launch would be impossible.
“Psyche 16 is a metal-rich asteroid, and it must use Mars’ gravity to fly there,” NASA said. According to plan, it was scheduled to launch in August or October of this year and arrive at the asteroid Psyche in 2026.
“In the meantime, our team has solved a lot of hardware and software problems, but the last problem ended up stopping it,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a senior researcher on the Psyche Probe Project. “It takes a little longer.” said
In the future, the launch schedule, etc. will be decided through the judgment of the evaluation team. Recently, in the field of space science, exploration and exploration plans for asteroids are in progress, attracting attention. Asteroids are known as ‘time capsules of the solar system’ because they contain early matter in the solar system.
Meanwhile, the Psyche probe program is expected to cost a total of $985 million, including rockets. It is estimated that $717 million has been spent so far.
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