Defending the Planet - DART and Future Missions

The Universe is trying to kill us. We know an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, which was great for the rise of mammals, but how do we prevent a similar fate for humanity? Enter the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, NASA's first attempt at planetary defense by redirecting the orbit of an asteroid's moon. DART launched in November 2021, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022, and successfully changed the moonlet's orbit by 32 minutes. Since that successful test mission, the data from the impact and subsequent debris has been analyzed by countless teams worldwide. So what is next for planetary defense? Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with scientist Dawn Graninger from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory about DART, follow-up mission Hera, and the future of saving the planet from near-Earth objects. (Recorded 2 November 2023.)