NASA’s DART spacecraft is because of hit the smaller sized body of the Didymos binary asteroid system in September2022 Credit: ESA– ScienceOffice org
< period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is "To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity." Its core values are "safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion."</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{" attribute="">NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft recently acquired its first image of Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos. DART will intentionally smash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos, on September 26. Although the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this is humanity’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense.
This image (below) of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) aboard DART on July 27, 2022.
From this distance—about 20 million miles away from DART—the Didymos system is still very faint, and navigation camera experts were uncertain whether DRACO would be able to spot the asteroid yet. However, once the 243 images DRACO took during this observation sequence were combined, the team was able to enhance it to reveal Didymos and pinpoint its location.
This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) aboard DART on July 27, 2022. Credit: NASA JPL DART Navigation Team
“This first set of images is being used as a test to prove our imaging techniques,” said Elena Adams. She is the DART mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The quality of the image is similar to what we could obtain from ground-based telescopes, but it is important to show that DRACO is working properly and can see its target to make any adjustments needed before we begin using the images to guide the spacecraft into the asteroid autonomously.”
A number of navigation simulations using non-DRACO images of Didymos have already been conducted by the team. However, DART will ultimately depend on its ability to see and process images of Didymos and Dimorphos, once it too can be seen, to guide the spacecraft toward the asteroid, especially in the final four hours before impact. At that point, DART will need to autonomously self-navigate to impact successfully with Dimorphos without any human intervention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97 jSrNzDUc4
“Seeing the DRACO images of Didymos for the first time, we can iron out the best settings for DRACO and fine-tune the software,” stated Julie Bellerose, the DART navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,California “In September, we’ll refine where DART is aiming by getting a more precise determination of Didymos’ location.”
Using observations taken every 5 hours, the DART group will perform 3 trajectory correction maneuvers over the next 3 weeks. Each of these will even more lower the margin of mistake for the spacecraft’s needed trajectory to effect. After the last maneuver on September 25, around 24 hours prior to effect, the navigation group will understand the position of the target Dimorphos within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). From there, DART will be on its own to autonomously assist itself to obstruct the asteroid moonlet. DART will knock into Dimorphos at 4 miles (7 kilometers) per second.
DRACO has actually consequently observed Didymos throughout prepared observations on August 12, August 13, and August 22.
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) handles the DART objective for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a job of the company’s Planetary Missions ProgramOffice DART is the world’s very first planetary defense test objective, deliberately performing a kinetic effect into Dimorphos to a little alter its movement in area. While the asteroid does not present any risk to Earth, the DART objective will show that a spacecraft can autonomously browse to a kinetic influence on a fairly little asteroid and show this is a practical method to deflect an asteroid on a clash with Earth if one is ever found. DART will reach its target on September 26, 2022.
