Detection is still the weak link, that part is true. But the equation is shifting. Surveys like NASA’s NEOWISE mission and the upcoming NEO Surveyor mission are specifically aimed at finding those missing near-Earth objects earlier.
The point of DART mission wasn’t that we can deflect every asteroid tomorrow. It was to prove that physics and guidance actually work in space. Now the playbook is clearer: detect earlier, then nudge early.
If you get even a few years of warning, a tiny velocity change compounds into a huge miss distance. That’s the real takeaway.
The point of DART mission wasn’t that we can deflect every asteroid tomorrow. It was to prove that physics and guidance actually work in space. Now the playbook is clearer: detect earlier, then nudge early.
If you get even a few years of warning, a tiny velocity change compounds into a huge miss distance. That’s the real takeaway.