DART will launch itself at speed into space rock

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A NASA mission due to launch in 2021 will test a new planetary defence system designed to protect the Earth from the threat of a collision with an asteroid. 

Currently in the final stages of development, the mission - called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) - will be tested by smashing it into a moonlet.

Dubbed Didymoon, the space rock came as close to Earth as 3.7 million miles (5.9m km) in 2003.

DART will smash into Didymoon, which orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, at 13,500 mph (21,700 kph) in October 2022. 

Unlike most missions launched by NASA to date, DART isn't about gathering scientific data to learn more about the solar system.

Instead, it's Earth's first asteroid defence strategy, designed in collaboration with the European Space Agency to protect our planet from a possible impact.

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'Planetary defence is really about the present solar system and what are we going to do in the present,' Dr Nancy Chabot, project scientist for DART, told Mail Online.

'DART is just the first technology demonstration mission in NASA's much larger planetary defence strategy.

'DART is not the final answer but rather just the first important step if we needed to defend the Earth from an asteroid impact.

'Finding the asteroids that pose potential impact risks to Earth, tracking them, and characterizing them are critically important to all planetary defence efforts.' 

NASA describes planetary defence as 'ensuring the early detection of potentially hazardous objects and coordinating with the US

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