Called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the first defense mission will be an interesting one seeing that there are so many possible threats on our planet, not just from within it but from without as well.
In order to preempt any asteroid from hitting earth, NASA has now embarked on creating measures to counter any cataclysmic event like that from happening with this new mission.
The mission, led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will be the first to demonstrate the kinetic impactor technique, which involves slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid at high speed to shift it off course.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama