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Oct 9, 2024 • 4 min read

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Wyoming Wildfire Expands 75k Acres
SpaceX Launches Hera Mission

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Wyoming Wildfire Expands 75k Acres:

As of October 8, 2024, the Elk Fire in Wyoming has expanded to 75,000 acres, driven by dry weather and gusty winds. The fire, which started on September 27 due to a lightning strike, remains difficult to control, but firefighters have managed to contain 10% of it. Over 800 personnel are actively engaged in building firebreaks and removing fuel sources to slow its spread. The fire has already caused significant damage, including the loss of two homes in the Horseshoe subdivision.
However, thanks to efforts of firefighters, many other homes have been saved. Several communities near Dayton remain under evacuation orders as the fire threatens more properties. Local ranchers have been forced to move livestock, with around 700 cattle being relocated from the summer grazing areas to safer winter pastures. Meanwhile, smoke from the fire is affecting air quality across northern Wyoming and southern Montana, creating additional health risks for residents.
With the winds expected to calm in the coming days, fire crews are preparing to take more aggressive steps toward containment. Still, the fire remains a major threat, particularly to key infrastructure like Dayton’s water supply. As the firefighting efforts continue, local residents and volunteers are rallying together, offering both resources and support to those protecting their homes and land.

SpaceX Launches Hera Mission:

On October 7, 2024, SpaceX launched the European Space Agency’s Hera mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a Falcon 9 rocket. This launch is part of an international effort to study the effects of planetary defense missions. Hera’s mission aims to investigate the impact of NASA’s earlier Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) by sending spacecraft and two cubesats—Milani and Juventas—to closely analyze the aftermath of DART’s 2022 collision with the asteroid Dimorphos.
The Hera mission is expected to arrive at the asteroid in 2026, after a two-year journey, which includes a planned gravity assist from Mars in 2025. Hera’s primary mission is to study the details of DART’s impact on Dimorphos, focusing on the size and characteristics of the crater left by the collision, as well as changes in the asteroid’s orbit and rotation. The cubesats Milani and Juventas will collect detailed data on the asteroid’s surface minerals, internal structure, and gravity, providing insight into how the impact affected the asteroid’s physical properties.
NASA’s DART mission, launched in 2022, was the first-ever real-world test of asteroid deflection using a kinetic impactor. DART was designed to deliberately collide with Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos, at a speed of over 14,000 miles per hour. The goal was to see if such a collision could alter the asteroid’s trajectory. The impact succeeded in shortening Dimorphos’ orbital period by 33 minutes, confirming that a kinetic impact can change the path of an asteroid, a concept that could one day be used to protect Earth from potential asteroid threats.

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