The space agency will launch the Double Asteroid Redirect Test spacecraft on September 26, also known as Dart. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or “Dart test”, is the first space mission to put this or any other asteroid deflection strategy to the test. Dart will arrive at the near-Earth asteroid Didymos in September 2022, having launched in November 2021. The spacecraft won’t slow down, purposely colliding into the asteroid’s small moon Dimorphous. The collision should shorten Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos, demonstrating the effectiveness of the kinetic impactor technique. Later this month, NASA will deliberately crash one of its spacecraft into an asteroid to aid shield Earth from future ruins. The target is to alter the asteroid’s motion just enough to allow for precise measurement with ground-based telescopes. It is then employed as a battering ram to collide with an asteroid near Earth.
kinetic Impact Technique
The Dart test will demonstrate that a spacecraft can manoeuvre autonomously to a target asteroid and purposely hit it, a type of deflection known as kinetic impact. “While asteroids are not a threat to Earth,” NASA said in a statement on Thursday, “this is the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, deploying a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defence” (8 September). In November of last year, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched, carrying Dart from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to begin this journey.
The spaceship will loop around Earth several times, gaining the speed required to escape orbit by using its electric propulsion. The Dart test will catch up to the asteroid ten months later by executing three trajectory correction manoeuvres before September 26. According to NASA, the final manoeuvre, which will take place around 24 hours before the collision on September 25, will allow the navigation team to know the asteroid’s position within two kilometres. Scientists have warned that each manoeuvre reduces the margin of error for the Dart’s required trajectory to collide with the asteroid.
Dimorphous
The spacecraft recently received its first look at the Didymos double-asteroid system, which contains the target asteroid Dimorphous. Didymos and Dimorphos are particularly good Dart targets. Even though they are little. Didymos is only 780 meters (half a mile) across, and Dimorphos is only 160 meters (525 feet) across. As seen from Earth, they pass in front of each other. A scan shot from roughly 20 million miles away revealed that the system was relatively dim, but scientists were able to pinpoint the exact location of the target asteroid.
Draco
Dart’s sole scientific instrument is a high-resolution camera termed Draco, which also serves as a navigational aid. “Seeing the Draco photos of Didymos for the first time, we can iron out the optimal settings for Draco and fine-tune the software,” said Julie Bellerose, the Dart navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “In September, we’ll fine-tune Dart’s trajectory by obtaining a more precise determination of Didymos’ location.” The Dart test will put the kinetic impactor earth protection theory to the test if it crashes into the asteroid at 15,000mph as anticipated later this month.
Concept of kinetic Impactor
“The concept of a kinetic impactor is that you drive your spaceship into the asteroid you’re worrying about, and then you modify its orbit around the sun by doing that,” astronomer Andy Rivkin explained.”Dart is a monument to NASA’s proactivity and creativity for the benefit of all,” stated NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “In addition to all of the ways NASA studies our cosmos and our home planet, we’re also striving to preserve that home, and this test will help prove out one possible strategy to shield our world from a hazardous asteroid if one is ever identified heading near Earth.” If this idea proves correct, the objective is to apply the same strategy to larger asteroids.
The Mission Objectives of Dart
It displays a kinetic influence on Dimorphous. It modifies Dimorphos’ binary orbital period. The period changes of Dimorphos before and after impact is measured using ground-based telescope observations. It assesses the impacts of the impact and ejecta on Dimorphous.
Final Words
The Dart test mission is handled by Johns Hopkins APL as a project of NASA’s Astronomical Projects Program Office for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia all contribute to the project. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is in charge of the launch. SpaceX provided the Dart mission service.
