While insisting that there is no danger to the Earth from catastrophic asteroid strikes, NASA is launching a spacecraft with the suicide mission of smashing into two asteroids in the hopes of deflecting them. 

Double Asteroid Redirection Test

On November 23, NASA will be launching its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. Carried into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, its mission will be to evaluate technologies that can be used to prevent a hazardous asteroid from striking Earth. 

The target is a 500-foot wide asteroid known as Didymoon which orbits a much larger space rock known as the Didymos primary body, which is approximately 2,559 feet across. If all goes as planned, DART should smash into Didymoon when it is within 11 million kilometers of Earth on October 2, 2022, at a speed of roughly 13,500 mph. Ground-based telescopes and planetary radar will observe the impact and assess the results of the test.

In 2003, came within 3.7 million miles of hitting the earth.

The DART mission will be using what is called the kinetic impactor technique which involves using a solar-powered electric propulsion system to smash the spacecraft into the asteroid in the hopes of deflecting it into a different trajectory, steering it away from the Earth’s orbital path. This will be achieved with the aid of an onboard camera (named DRACO) and sophisticated autonomous navigation software. NASA already began testing in 2005 with the Deep Impact mission. NASA estimated that it would require a warning time of at least 1 to 2 years for smaller asteroids but for more significant asteroids, 20 years or more would be required to build and launch an impactor, to reach and impact the target, and to nudge the asteroid from Earth’s path. 

The mission is being managed by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the Science Mission Directorate’s Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters. 

Planetary defense a growing concern

NASA is beginning to seriously consider the threat of a catastrophic impact as a planet-threatening possibility.NASA established the Near-Earth Object (NEO) program in 1998 to track asteroids that were on a trajectory that would bring them close to home and that measured 460 feet in diameter or larger. Since its inception, the NEO has identified almost one million asteroids with  90 percent of them measuring larger than 3,200 feet across. To be qualified as having a close approach, the NEO must be within 121 million miles of the Sun and within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit around the sun.

The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) was established in 2016 to detect any potentially hazardous object. Since the PDCO was established, at least four major impacts have been reported. Only three impact events have been successfully predicted in advance, usually by only a few hours.  Currently, predictions are mainly based on cataloging asteroids years before they are due to impact. This works well for larger asteroids as they are easily seen from a long distance but is ineffective for predicting smaller objects that can still be quite destructive.

In 2018, scientists and civil authorities from around the world gathered at the International Academy of Astronautics 6th Planetary Defense Conference. in College Park, Maryland to plan for such a catastrophic event. Also, the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan was published by the White House in 2018, describing plans for such an eventuality.

The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) was established in 2016 to detect any potentially Earth-threatening object. Since the PDCO was established, at least four major impacts have been reported. Only three impact events have been successfully predicted in advance, usually by only a few hours.  Currently, predictions are mainly based on cataloging asteroids years before they are due to impact. This works well for larger asteroids as they are easily seen from a long distance but is ineffective for predicting smaller objects that can still be quite destructive.

NASA is currently tracking around 20,000 near-Earth asteroids. Any asteroid about 500 feet or larger with an orbit that brings it within 4.7 million miles of Earth is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, NASA officials have said. At the moment, scientists have identified more than 20,000 near-earth objects (NEO) and around 40 new ones are being discovered every week. Of the known NEOs, around 5,000 of these are classed as “potentially hazardous.” CNEOS estimated that a cataclysmic collision between an asteroid and the earth that threatens the future of civilization occurs on average once per 100,000 years. But the threat of unseen dangers lurking directly overhead is far more common than previously thought. Over 17,000 near-Earth asteroids remain undetected in our solar neighborhood

“NASA’s job, give the general populace a false sense of security”

Yuval Ovadia,  whose films on Nibiru have garnered hundreds of thousands of views, suggested that NASA’s interests are not to prevent catastrophe.

“Despite all their money and technology, they aren’t very good at spotting asteroids,” he noted. “And it is impossible for them to see anything coming from the direction of the sun.”

Despite its impressive statistics, the NEO has logged some significant misses. On 15 February 2013 a meteor approximately 66 ft entered Earth’s atmosphere over Russia at a speed of approximately 40,000 mph. Due to its high velocity and shallow angle of atmospheric entry, the object exploded in an airburst over Chelyabinsk Oblast, at a height of around 18.5 miles, releasing 26 to 33 times as much energy as that released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. The object was undetected before its atmospheric entry, in part because its radiant was close to the Sun. Its explosion created panic among local residents. About 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment and some 7,200 buildings in six cities across the region were damaged by the explosion’s shock wave. 

“NASA’s job is to give the general populace a false sense of security,” Ovadia suggested. “They are also motivated by the hubris of secular scientists. They think they are in charge of nature. This is the motive behind the claims of ‘global warming.’ Anti-Bible people cannot admit that there is something they cannot control because that would mean that there is a God. Whenever scientists try to improve nature, they always end up making things worse.”

Ovadia explained that according to Jewish sources, the end of days will be marked by astronomical events but they will not threaten the earth. He explained that Jewish sources describe a star that will appear in the end of days, wreaking havoc but not destroying the world, what many refer to as Nibiru.

“Before the great and terrible day of Hashem comes,* I will set portents in the sky and on earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke;” Joel 3:3 

“As Nibiru approaches, more asteroids will appear,” Ovadia said. “Nibiru is described in Jewish sources as a star, not as an asteroid. But as it approaches, it pushes asteroids ahead of it like a ship pushes water in front of it. Yes, there will be upheaval and catastrophes, but not from asteroids.”

Ovadia bases his statements on classical Jewish esoteric sources.Ovadia explained that the renowned medieval scholar Maimonides described the prophecy of Balaam in the Bible as referring to astronomical phenomena presaging the Messiah.

What I see for them is not yet, What I behold will not be soon: A star rises from Yaakov, A scepter comes forth from Yisrael; It smashes the brow of Moab, The foundation of all children of Shet. Numbers 24:17