DART sets sights on asteroid target

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Check (DART) spacecraft not too long ago obtained its first take a look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that features its goal, Dimorphos. On Sept. 26, DART will deliberately crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. Whereas the asteroid poses no menace to Earth, that is the world’s first take a look at of the kinetic influence method, utilizing a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary protection.

This picture of the sunshine from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Digicam for Optical navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022.

From this distance—about 20 million miles away from DART—the Didymos system continues to be very faint, and navigation digital camera consultants had been unsure whether or not DRACO would be capable to spot the asteroid but. However as soon as the 243 photographs DRACO took throughout this remark sequence had been mixed, the crew was capable of improve it to disclose Didymos and pinpoint its location.

“This primary set of photographs is getting used as a take a look at to show our imaging techniques,” mentioned Elena Adams, the DART mission methods engineer on the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The standard of the picture is much like what we might get hold of from ground-based telescopes, however you will need to present that DRACO is working correctly and might see its goal to make any changes wanted earlier than we start utilizing the photographs to information the spacecraft into the asteroid autonomously.”

Though the crew has already carried out numerous navigation simulations utilizing non-DRACO photographs of Didymos, DART will in the end rely upon its capability to see and course of photographs of Didymos and Dimorphos, as soon as it too might be seen, to information the spacecraft towards the asteroid, particularly within the ultimate 4 hours earlier than influence. At that time, DART might want to self-navigate to influence efficiently with Dimorphos with none human intervention.

“Seeing the DRACO photographs of Didymos for the primary time, we will iron out the very best settings for DRACO and fine-tune the software program,” mentioned Julie Bellerose, the DART navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “In September, we’ll refine the place DART is aiming by getting a extra exact dedication of Didymos’ location.”

Utilizing observations taken each 5 hours, the DART crew will execute three trajectory correction maneuvers over the following three weeks, every of which is able to additional cut back the margin of error for the spacecraft’s required trajectory to influence. After the ultimate maneuver on Sept. 25, roughly 24 hours earlier than influence, the navigation crew will know the place of the goal Dimorphos inside 2 kilometers. From there, DART might be by itself to autonomously information itself to its collision with the asteroid moonlet.

DRACO has subsequently noticed Didymos throughout deliberate observations on Aug. 12, Aug. 13 and Aug. 22.

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