![]() ![]() Located in the constellation Auriga, the cluster of stars lies some 4,200 light-years from Earth. With those measurements in hand, the DART team could accurately move the spacecraft to point DRACO at objects of interest, such as Messier 38 (M38), also known as the Starfish Cluster, that DART captured in another image on Dec. 10. ![]() The DART navigation team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California used the stars in the image to determine precisely how DRACO was oriented, providing the first measurements of how the camera is pointed relative to the spacecraft. 10, DART’s DRACO camera captured and returned this image of the stars in Messier 38, or the Starfish Cluster, which lies some 4,200 light-years away. Taken about 2 million miles (11 light seconds) from Earth - very close, astronomically speaking - the image shows about a dozen stars, crystal-clear and sharp against the black backdrop of space, near where the constellations Perseus, Aries and Taurus intersect. On Tuesday, Dec. 7, the spacecraft popped open the circular door covering the aperture of its DRACO telescopic camera and, to everyone’s glee, streamed back the first image of its surrounding environment. Because components of the spacecraft’s telescopic instrument are sensitive to movements as small as 5 millionths of a meter, even a tiny shift of something in the instrument could be very serious. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL)Īfter the violent vibrations of launch and the extreme temperature shift to minus 80 degrees Celsius in space, scientists and engineers at the mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, held their breath in anticipation. It is a suicide mission and the spacecraft will be completely destroyed.After opening the circular door to its telescopic imager, NASA’s DART captured this image of about a dozen stars near where the constellations Perseus, Aries and Taurus intersect.Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos (Greek for “twin”).The target of the spacecraft is a small moonlet called Dimorphos (Greek for “two forms”).The aim is to test the newly developed technology that would allow a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid and change its course.The mission is to test the new technology to be prepared in case an asteroid heads towards Earth in the future.LICIACube is expected to capture images of the impact and the impact crater formed as a result of the collision.DART will also carry a small satellite or CubeSat named LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids).Images from DRACO will be sent to Earth in real-time and will help study the impact site and surface of Dimorphos (the target asteroid).The spacecraft carries a high-resolution imager called Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation (DRACO).NEXT-C gridded ion thruster system provides a combination of performance and spacecraft integration capabilities that make it uniquely suited for deep space robotic missions.It also carries about 10 kg of xenon which will be used to demonstrate the agency’s new thrusters called NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster–Commercial (NEXT-C) in space.It has two solar arrays and uses hydrazine propellant for maneuvering the spacecraft.The DART spacecraft weighs around 600 kilograms.Scientists don’t yet know the exact mass of Dimorphos but it is estimated to be around five billion kilograms.Data obtained from DART’s crash will be compared to the data from various computer simulations run by scientists to ascertain whether this kinetic impactor method will remain a viable option in case of an actual threatening asteroid.This could deflect the asteroid into a different trajectory, steering it away from the Earth’s orbital path.The Kinetic Impactor Method involves sending one or more large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of an approaching near-earth object.It is the first Kinetic Impactor Method of planetary defence, where a DART spacecraft will be colliding with the asteroid Dimorphos.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is about to launch its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission: NASA ![]()
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