It looks like the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will make its first launch window. NASA have advised via twitter that it will launch at 5:21 pm AEDT with live coverage commencing at 4:30 pm AEDT.

NASA have also released a short video of Adam McKay, director of Don't Look Up, comparing his movie to the mission.

Movie fake. NASA real.

DART's launch should, if all goes according to plan, be relatively ordinary, but it might be one worth watching nonetheless.

Potentially dangerous asteroid impacts should be extremely unlikely in the normal course of events.

But we have noticed increasingly common media reports on the estimated mineral wealth of asteroids in our solar system.

Possibly one method that is being considered for mining those is strapping big honking rockets to them and pushing them closer to Earth to be mined in orbit, or onto the surface of Mars or the Moon where they could be handily mined to provide building materials.

Might be wise to have some method for deflecting asteroids first though. Like, DART.

If so, this launch today could effectively be the beginning of humanity's expansion beyond Earth and it's resources.

[ Main Image: DART rocket. Credit: NASA via Twitter. ]

References

Bielling, Patti (November 23, 2021). Launch Readiness Review Complete Ahead of NASA’s DART Mission. NASA.

NASA [@NASA] (November 23, 2021). COMING UP: #DARTMission launch! Twitter.

NASA [@NASA] (November 23, 2021). The upcoming movie “Don’t Look Up” is a fictional story about a doomsday comet. Twitter