NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test
Source: Indian Express
GS III: Science and Technology

What is discussed under NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test?

1. Double Asteroid Redirection Test
2. Kinetic Impactor Method
3. Dimorphos

Why in News?

In humanity’s first successful planetary defence test, NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphos.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test

Collaboration

• Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space project that aims to test a method of planetary protection against near-Earth asteroids (NEOs).

  

• DART is a collaborative NASA-Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) project.
• The project is financed by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
• Directed by NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
• Technical assistance is provided by various NASA laboratories and offices.
• International collaborators include:
  • The European Space Agency (ESA)
  • The Italian Space Agency (ASI)
  • The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

About the launch

• NASA cleared the project in August 2018 to begin the final design and construction phase.
• The DART spacecraft was launched on November 24, 2021, and crashed with Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, at 23:16 UTC.
• The probe was launched from Earth in November 2021 and crashed the minor-planet moon Dimorphos of the twin asteroid Didymos 10 months later.  
• DRACO, which stands for Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation, is a high-resolution camera that captures photos of Didymos and Dimorphos while also assisting DART’s autonomous guiding system.
• One-way communication takes 38 seconds.

Kinetic Impactor Method

• The DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos using the first Kinetic Impactor Method of planetary defence.
• The Kinetic Impactor Method entails launching one or more huge, high-speed spacecraft into the path of a near-Earth asteroid.
• This diverts the asteroid and redirects it away from Earth’s orbital path.
• Data from the DART crash will be compared to data from other computer simulations done by experts to determine whether this kinetic impactor technology will remain viable in the event of a real dangerous asteroid.
• The asteroid chosen for test presents no danger to Earth.

Dimorphos

• Didymos and its little moonlet Dimorphos form a binary asteroid system, which means the small moon (Dimorphos) circles the bigger body (Didymos).
• Although the two asteroids pose no threat to Earth, they were chosen as the target for NASA’s DART mission, the agency’s first mission to test planetary defence technologies.
• This device might one day be used to divert dangerous asteroids on their way to Earth.
• DART collided with Dimorphos at a high speed of around 4 miles per second (6.6 kilometres per second).
• When DART collided with Dimorphos, it was around 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometres) away from Earth.

Reason for Choosing Dimorphos

• The mission’s purpose is to assess how much DART’s collision changed the moonlet’s velocity in space by tracking its orbit around Didymos.
• Scientists believe the impact slowed Dimorphos by a fraction of a per cent.
• This should change the moonlet’s orbital period around the bigger asteroid by several minutes, allowing telescopes on Earth to detect and quantify it.

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