Here's a brief apocalyptic scenario and question: an asteroid comes hurtling towards Earth, how do you stop it from blowing us into smithereens?
uckily for us, NASA and ESA, among other international space agencies, are working hard at answering this question, and are preparing an upcoming practice run in Space for such a situation not to occur.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is due to launch on July 22, 2021, and will practice heading up to the asteroid, Didymos, and knocking away its accompanying satellite, Didymoon.
DART is a demonstration mission to see how kinetic impact could deflect an asteroid's course. In the 2021 DART mission, Didymos and Didymoon are not in fact on a collision course with Earth, but they offer an interesting opportunity for a practice run.