This is NASA’s DART spacecraft. The first planetary defense mission. It will reach its target on September 26. The mission that will deflect an asteroid plans to hit Dimorphos. It’s a moon orbiting an asteroid called Didymos.
The impact is scheduled for 19.14 US East Coast time, 00.14 UTC on Tuesday the 27th. Asteroids pose no threat to Earth. But the collision will allow better prediction of possible risk scenarios. It will be useful if we ever have a real threat to Earth, NASA explains.
Documented impact
Launched in November 2021. The spacecraft weighs about 600 kilograms. It will crash 11 million kilometers from Earth when it impacts Dimorphos. The spacecraft will approach the space rock at about 6.1 kilometers per second.
Asteroid Didymos will keep its motion around the Sun largely intact. The collision is expected to deflect the orbit of the small asteroid. It will barely be a fraction of one percent. That’s just enough to be measurable with ground-based radars and telescopes.
Launched just before impact, LICIACube – the size of a shoebox – will document the DART impact and its aftermath. DRACO, the reconnaissance camera is the only instrument aboard DART. It will serve primarily as an optical navigation system, capturing images that help the spacecraft reach its target. It will feed its images into the autonomous real-time navigation algorithm. The system will accurately and automatically guide it to the asteroid.
Chasing asteroids
The mission that will deflect an asteroid has a second part. It will take place once the dust has settled. ESA’s Hera mission will launch in 2024. It will arrive in the asteroid system two years later to perform high-resolution scientific visual, laser and radio mapping of the asteroid’s moon. They will then be able to assess the consequences of the impact.