CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a miniaturized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, developed under NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Program. The CubeSat is being designed and developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Detailed explanation-2: -Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, will perform reconnaissance of an asteroid using a CubeSat and solar sail propulsion, which offers navigation agility during cruise for approaching the target.

Detailed explanation-3: -Following successful separation and deployment from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) on Nov. 16, the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) project team has not yet established communications with the spacecraft. Teams continue working to initiate contact with NEA Scout.

Detailed explanation-4: -It is 12.4 mm x 6.2 mm x 6.2 mm and uses about 5 W power. The solar sail is the main source of propulsion for the mission. It is a thin (2.5 micron) square sheet of CP1 material, roughly 9.3 m on a side with a total effective area of 86 square meters, held in place by four 7.3 m long metallic booms.

Detailed explanation-5: -In a successful attempt to alter the orbit of an asteroid for the first time in history, NASA crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. The mission, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, took place at an asteroid that posed no threat to our planet.