The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was launched from the Space Launch Complex 4 East at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The world's first full-scale mission to demonstrate technologies that could someday be used to defend our planet from Near-Earth Asteroids is underway.
The DART mission will evaluate a proposed method for deflating asteroids. Over the next ten months, the DART mission will autonomously navigate towards the Didymos asteroid and collide with it. If everything goes according to plan, this will change the asteroid's motion so that ground-based telescopes can accurately measure any changes.
The launch took place early Tuesday morning. The DART mission took off from the SLC-4E. DART separated from the second stage and began sending data back to controllers. The two large solar panels that will power theSEP were unfurled about two hours later.
Didymos and its moonlet were captured on Arecibo radar. Credit: NASA.
The DART effort is led by theJHUAPL. The mission is managed by the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and Planetary Science Division. NASA, the European Space Agency, and other partner agencies have compromised the mission. Bill Nelson explained in a recent NASA press release.
DART is turning science fiction into science fact and is a testament to NASA's proactivity and innovation for the benefit of all. This test will help prove out one viable way to protect our planet from a hazardous asteroid should one ever be discovered, and we are also working to protect our home planet.
DART is a mission of preparedness and also a mission of unity, according to Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The international collaboration involves DART, LICIACube, and the Hera investigations and science teams.
The 610 kiloton impactor is powered by a solar electric engine that uses solar panels to power its NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster–Commercial (NEXT-C) engine. The target for this mission is a larger asteroid called Didymos and a moonlet called Dimorphos.
The DART mission rendezvoused with the NEA Didymos. Credit: NASA
Dimorphos is less than one-quarter the size of Didymos, but it is still about two-thirds the diameter. This moonlet will be the primary target for DART, which will rendezvous with the system between September 26th and October 1st, 2022. DART will be waiting to collide with Dimorphos at a speed of about 6 km/s, when the asteroid arrives within 11 million km from Earth.
The scientists estimate that this will shorten Dimorphos' circle around Didymos by several minutes. The results will be used to improve the computer models that are used to predict the outcomes of asteroids. The change in speed will be easier to measure than the change in Didymos' orbital velocity.
The Italian Space Agency will provide the Light Italian CubeSat for the purpose of studying asteroids. This small cubeSat will piggyback with DART, separate ten days before impact, then capture images of the impact's effect and the ejected debris. The Hera project will arrive at Didymos around four years after DART impacts the moonlet.
This test will give vital data that will be used to improve preparations for asteroid defense. Didymos is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. The designation applies to asteroids that are more than 100 m in diameter and whose orbits brings them within 0.05AU of Earth.
The Hera mission looked at Dimorphos after the DART impact. The Science Office is a part of the ESA.
The extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been caused by the impact of these similarly-sized objects. Lindley Johnson is a planetary defense officer at NASA.
We haven't found any significant asteroid threat to Earth, but we are still looking for a large population that is still to be found. Our goal is to find any impact years to decades in advance so that we can use DART that is possible with the technology we have. NASA is working to prepare Earth for an asteroid hazard.
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The Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, a space-based telescope scheduled for launch later this decade, is designed to expedite our ability to discover and characterize the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth.
DART will take the first images from the Didymos and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation next week. DART will rely on a series of small-body navigation tricks. DART will be able to identify and distinguish between the two asteroids.
The image was released by the European Space Agency. Credit: ESA
Joan Marie is an engineer with the NASA Kennedy Space Center. She and her colleagues worked through the night to prepare for the launch of the DART mission. She said it felt amazing. It was an incredible feeling to see the hard work our team put into this launch.
Andy Cheng was one of the investigators who came up with the idea of DART. Seeing the mission he conceived take flight was a dream come true.
It is an amazing feeling to see something you have been involved with since the words on paper become reality and are launched into space. The DART investigation and engineering teams have a lot of work to do over the next year to prepare for the main event. DART has an impact on Dimorphos. Tonight we celebrate.
Further reading: NASA.
