Double Asteroid Redirection Test
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a NASA space mission for planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was made to see how much a spacecraft could move an asteroid out of its trajectory (the path it is guessed to travel.)[1] The asteroid that was picked was not dangerous to earth, and was picked because it was simple. The spacecraft flew on the 24th of November 2021, and hit what it was aiming for, the asteroid Dimorphos.
DART was a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
The DART spacecraft was successfully launched on 24 November 2021, with collision aimed for 26 September 2022 to 2 October 2022.[2][3]
Double Asteroid Redirection Test Media
DRACO Integration to Spacecraft*DART team members at APL install and inspect DART's only instrument - the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) - onto the spacecraft in June 2021. This high-resolution imager, derived from the LORRI camera on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, will measure the size and shape of Dimorphos, its target asteroid, and will feed the spacecraft's guidance system to autonomously direct the spacecraft to collision. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT)
Telescopes observing DART's impact
Astronomers using the NSF’s NOIRLab’s SOAR telescope in Chile captured the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos by NASA’s DART spacecraft when it impacted on 26 September 2022. In this image, the more than 10,000 kilometer long dust trail — the ejecta that has been pushed away by the Sun’s radiation pressure, not unlike the tail of a comet — can be seen stretching from the center to the right-hand edge of the field of view.
Pre-impact shape model of Didymos and its satellite Dimorphos, based on photometric light curve and radar data
DART being encapsulated in the Falcon 9 payload fairing on 16 November 2021
Animation of DART's trajectory DART · 65803 Didymos · Earth · Sun · 2001 CB21 · 3361 Orpheus
Animation of DART around Didymos - Impact on Dimorphos DART · Didymos · Dimorphos
Compiled timelapse of DART's final 5.5 minutes until impact
DART Mission animated video from launch to impact along with separation of LICIACube
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References
- ↑ Bardan, Roxana (2022-09-26). "NASA's DART Mission Hits Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test". NASA. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
- ↑ "SpaceX ready for first launch with NASA interplanetary mission". Spaceflight Now. 22 November 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
- ↑ "DART Launch Moves to Secondary Window". NASA. 17 February 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
