NASA releases details about the mission Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which aims to deflect an asteroid approaching Earth in 2022. The space agency will send a probe to the binary asteroid Didymos, which also has a small moon known as Dimorphos.
Didymos’s primary body is approximately half a mile wide, while the moon is approximately 174 yards in size. NASA uses a series of telescopes to accurately measure the asteroid’s properties before the DART spacecraft does its job.
At the moment the mission is in Phase C, but once it gets underway, the goal is for it to hit Dimorphos at a speed of 4 miles per hour. With this collision, the small moon is expected to change the speed of its orbit around Didymos’s main body.
The mission launch is scheduled for July 2021, and will be carried aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The DART spacecraft will separate from the rocket and NASA estimates that it will succeed in intercepting Didymos’ moon in September 2022.
This will transpire when the binary asteroid is almost 7 million miles from Earth. However, NASA clarifies that Dimorphos does not present any danger to our planet, the objective of DART is to make further observations and develop techniques to avoid a possible impact.
The spacecraft is equipped with Roll Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) technology, which will assist in powering the electrical system with solar energy. Another instrument in DART is a camera called DRACO that will help the navigation software get closer to the asteroid.
