On September 26, the NASA project DART (Double Asteroid Redirect Test) craft successfully completed its mission and smashed into asteroid Dimorphos after a 10+ month flight. The purpose was to see if we could launch a device at an object, hit it and hopefully alter it's course as a result very much reminiscent of the 1998 film Armageddon.
Curiously, I'm ok with this mission and the expenditure of tax dollars spent and just for the record, it was a joint NASA and European Space Agency project. My feeling is that for once, we were doing something proactive instead of having an Oh Shit moment and scrambling to save our collective asses. The cost was roughly $325 million dollars, which in the vastness of government spending, pretty much a piss in the ocean when you compare it to the millions and sometimes billions PER UNIT spent on military aircraft . So why not invest in a "what if" capability? Beats spending money on the silly Moon and Mars missions. While ballyhooed as having potential scientific value, the real reason is the lust of resource exploitation by the toxic capital nationalists. They want to get there before those wily Chinese so they can puff out their prideful chests and wallets. Biden has decided to back this and this brings up one of the problems with Biden: nostalgia. He remembers the good old days with Kennedy and he thinks if the government succeeds in these missions, the whole country will come together with swelling pride. Sorry, bud-I don't think most folks will give a shit. These are much different times than the 60's and we are a different people.
Meanwhile, we await the findings-did DART manage to affect the trajectory of Dimorphos?
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