Deflecting the Void: How NASA Learned to Protect the Planet

Rethinking Existential Risk

While humanity has flourished for millennia, philosophers and scientists remain deeply cautious about our long-term survival. Toby Ord, an Australian philosopher and ethicist, argues in his book The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity that we have reached a critical juncture in our development—one that could end in tragedy.

Ord suggests we are at a “precipice” where emerging threats such as artificial intelligence, engineered pandemics, nuclear weapons, and climate change could lead to our extinction. He estimates the risk of an existential catastrophe within the next century at one in six. Among these hazards, he includes natural disasters, specifically the impact of large asteroids.

For centuries, we have looked at the sky with trepidation, echoing the fears of classical philosophers: we are but a speck in the cosmic void, at the mercy of the unpredictable. Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at Oxford University, also identifies asteroid impacts as a top-tier existential risk in his seminal work Existential Risks. This celestial threat renders the future of subsequent generations uncertain, forcing us to reconsider our place in the cosmos and our capacity for survival.

Altering the Heavens for the First Time

It is no surprise that we are striving to mitigate these cosmic dangers. In 2022, for the first time in history, humanity successfully altered the motion of a natural celestial body. The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft struck the asteroid Dimorphos, intentionally changing its orbit. This was a vital test of the technology required to deflect potentially hazardous objects before they reach our atmosphere.

Planetary Defense: Can We Change the Future?

Recent measurements confirm that the trajectory of Dimorphos has indeed shifted. This marks the first time humans have effectively influenced the orbit of a natural object in space. The study published in Science notes:

Our results demonstrate that targeting the smaller member of a binary asteroid system is a viable strategy for kinetic impactor deflection, expanding humanity’s capabilities for planetary defense.

The research indicates that even a small nudge, if delivered early enough, can significantly alter an asteroid’s path over time. In the DART mission, the orbital period of Dimorphos was shortened by approximately 33 minutes. This proves that timely intervention could allow us to divert a dangerous object, avoiding a catastrophic collision with our home.

Beyond the Silver Screen: NASA’s Real-World Heroism

We often wonder if we are doomed to total annihilation should a massive body head our way. Pop culture has wrestled with this for decades. In the 1998 film Armageddon, Bruce Willis landed on an asteroid to detonate a nuclear device and save the world. While the protagonist sacrificed himself for the community, NASA has now achieved a similar feat in the real world—precisely and safely—without the need for such tragic sacrifice.

Then came the satire Don’t Look Up, a mirror reflecting a society distracted by trivialities, media chasing easy profit, and authorities blinded by their own agendas while a destructive comet approaches. The film was not a prophecy but a critique of our collective fear and occasional indifference toward the uncontrollable power of nature.

Blaise Pascal and the Thinking Reed

Since antiquity, we have sought to define our place in the universe. Lucretius and Democritus compared us to a collection of atoms moving through a void. In mythology, humanity feared the thunderbolts of Zeus. Today, these themes persist in literature and cinema.

However, the most fitting reflection comes from Blaise Pascal, who wrote:

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

It is this capacity for thought that allows us to push forward and confront the void. Rather than retreating into denial, we choose to look up and act. In this sense, the DART mission is more than a mere technological experiment. It proves that our fragility does not have to mean helplessness.

For the first time, we have real influence over events in space. We are no longer merely passive observers. To some degree, we can now change the trajectory of threats before they become catastrophes. That is why planetary defense is more than a technological experiment. It is proof that human fragility does not have to mean helplessness.

Read this article in Polish: Pierwszy cios w kosmosie. Ludzkość już umie się bronić