NASA's DART Mission

DART which means Double Asteroid Redirection Test is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of the technology. DART's target asteroid is not a threat to Earth. This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future.

DART mission impactor spacecraft

Overview

DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to the investigation and demonstration of one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space through kinetic impact. This method will have DART deliberately collide with a target asteroid-which poses no threat to Earth in order to change its speed and path. DART's target is the binary, near-Earth asteroid system Didymos A, composed of the roughly 780meters or 2,560-foot diameter "Didymos" and the smaller. approximately 160 meters in size Didymos B also known as Dimorphos, which orbits Didymos A. DART will impact Didymos B to change its orbit within the binary system, and the DART investigation team will compare the results of DART's kinetic impact with Didymos B to highly detailed computer simulations of kinetic impacts on asteroids. Doing so will evaluate the effectiveness of this mitigation approach and assess how best to apply it to future planetary defense scenarios, as well as how accurate the computer simulations are and how well they reflect the behavior of a real asteroid.

DART mission

Key Objectives

DART is a test of our ability to achieve a kinetic impact on an asteroid and observe the steroid's response. After DART's kinetic import with its target asteroid Didymos B, an investigation team will measure how much the impact changed the asteroid's motion in space using telescopes on Earth. This mission engages the international planetary science community and embraces worldwide cooperation to address the global issue of planetary defense.

DART's mission objectives:

• Demonstrate a kinetic impact with Didymos B.
• Change the binary orbital period of Didymos B.
• Use ground-based telescope observations to measure Didymos B' period change before and after impact.
• Measure the effect of the impact and resulting ejecta on Didymos B.

Credits: European Space Agency - DART

Simulation of NASA's DART mission

Mission Results

NASA's DART mission was launched on November 23, 2021, at 10:21 PST(Pacific Standard Time) with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On Monday, September 26, 2022, at 7.14p.m PST, DART successfully impacted its asteroid target in the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration. As a part of NASA’s overall planetary defense strategy, DART’s impact with the asteroid Didymos B will help to determine whether asteroid deflection using a kinetic impactor spacecraft is a viable mitigation technique for protecting the planet from an Earth-bound asteroid or comet if one were discovered. Johns Hopkins APL manages the DART mission for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency's Planetary Missions Program Office. Neither DART’s target asteroid, Didymos B, nor its larger asteroid parent, Didymos A, poses a hazard to Earth.

An image of asteroid Didymos A (bottom left) and its moonlet, Didymos B, about 2.5 minutes before the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022.

Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL