At 7:14pm on September 26th, 2022, mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, announced the successful impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). After a ten month long journey, the probe designed to see if humanity had achieved the know-how to potentially redirect incoming asteroids had finally impacted a target.
In and of itself, this is a stunning accomplishment, especially considering that only a hundred years ago, humans had yet to invent television, sunglasses, traffic signals, bulldozers, or the automatic bread slicer. Now, we’re crashing shit into asteroids.
Never a species to misappropriate the majesty of the moment, some enterprising social media guru has personified the DART probe and given it a voice suitable to the occasion. I think you’ll see that this account perfectly captures both the monumental scientific achievement and a — dare I say — Carl Sagan-ish dream of galactic benevolence.
Enjoy.
How motherfucking profound.
I don’t know if the hopes and dreams of the collective scientific world have ever been more succinctly captured. Wherever the great Sir Isaac Newton is right now, I’m sure he’s shedding a tear.
