USA - NASA Hopes to Save Earth from Asteroids
NASA will use a spacecraft to test a planetary-defense method that could one day save Earth.
The Double Asteroid Redirect Test spacecraft, otherwise known as DART, will be used as a battering ram to crash into an asteroid not far from Earth. The mission is an international collaboration to protect the globe from future asteroid impacts.
“While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this is the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense,” NASA said.
NASA says that after the final maneuver, approximately 24 hours before impact, the navigation team will know the position of Dimorphos within 2 kilometers. From there, DART will be on its own to autonomously guide itself to collision with the out-of-this-world space rock.
Asteroids move around the sun at a speed of about 20 miles per second. Astronomer Andy Rivkin explained that if a kinetic impactor method were used to change its orbit, engineers would only want to alter that by a tiny amount, maybe an inch or two a second.
-www.foxweather.com, 9 September 2022
Commentary
These scientists are attempting to change the trajectory of an asteroid by a tiny fraction—all in hopes to “save Earth” from a future collision.
While we admire their dedication to learning more about the universe and desire to make the world “safer,” we know that this planet is headed for destruction: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Thus, our only real hope lies in Jesus Christ and His soon return: “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Thess 3:13). (By K. Farmer)
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
