Let’s say your buddy is riding a skateboard extremely fast and is headed toward your dog. One (chaotic) way for you to save your dog is to run into your skateboarding friend. When you collide with your friend, the energy you’ve built up changes their direction and lowers their speed. You’ve just become a kinetic impactor – designed to throw your skateboarding buddy off-course and save your dog.
If the skateboarder was a planet-destroying asteroid and your dog was Earth, you’d be playing the role of a future spacecraft.
DART works in a similar way,
**but it's not trying to protect the dog**,
it’s just trying to knock the skateboarder off course.
It’s NOT trying to protect the dog ?