The Double Asteroid Redirection Test is a US space mission designed to test how planet defenses are against near-Earth objects (NEOs). DART will deliberately collide the spacecraft with the twin asteroid named Didymos and test whether the kinetic effects of the spacecraft’s collision can successfully deflect the asteroid from its collision course with the planet Earth.
Highlights
This is a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Other international space agencies such as Europe, Italy and Japan are also involved in the project. Testing was scheduled to take place in the month of November, 2021. In the year 2018, NASA agave its approval for the project to begin the final assembly and design phase. The release is scheduled for the month of November 24, 2021, with an impact on October 2, 2022.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) had independent plans to test the asteroid’s deflection strategy. They have established a partnership called AIDA to conduct the exam. The European space probe AIM should be launched under AIDA in the year 2020 and under DART in the year 2021. AIM orbited the larger asteroid of the twin asteroids and studied its composition. DART will collide with the asteroid’s moon in October 2022 as the asteroid approaches Earth. However, the AIM Orbiter has been cancelled.
Technical Details
DART does not carry any payload. There is only a sun sensor and a sun tracker. DART weighs 500 kg and it will collide with the asteroid at a speed of 6.6 km/s. This will change the trajectory of the asteroid system. It uses a solar electric motor, the NEXT Ion Thruster.
The spacecraft is powered by solar panels covering an area of ??22 square meters. The Italian Space Agency has created Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube). The Cubesat which will be attached to the top of the DART will dissociate from DART 10 days prior to exposure. LICIACube will send images of the impact back to Earth. LICIACube has two optical cameras which are named LUKE and LEIA.
Launch of DART
The spacecraft was fueled by the Vandenberg space station. And in the month of October 2021, it headed to SpaceX’s payload center. The spacecraft was fueled by hydrazine fuel. It will be released in a SpaceX Falcon 9.
About HERA
HERA is being developed by The European Space Agency. HERA is scheduled to be launched in the year 2024 and is scheduled to reach Didymos in the year 2027. HERA will be scouting and examining Didymos in detail.
Reason for choosing Didymos for testing
Didymos is a type of a binary asteroid system. Here, Small asteroids orbit large asteroids and DART will be colliding with a smaller asteroid. Didymos is an ideal test mission system because it is a solar eclipse binary system. This means That is, there is a moon that orbits the asteroid on a regular basis and can be seen as it passes in front of the main asteroids. Earth-based telescopes can examine these changes in brightness to understand how long Dimorphos takes to orbit Didymos.