The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Planetary Defense Investigations and Requirements (original) (raw)
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Momentum Transfer from the DART Mission Kinetic Impact on Asteroid Dimorphos
The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission performed a kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos, the satellite of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, at 23:14 UTC on September 26, 2022 as a planetary defense test1. DART was the first hypervelocity impact experiment on an asteroid at size and velocity scales relevant to planetary defense, intended to validate kinetic impact as a means of asteroid deflection. Here we report the first determination of the momentum transferred to an asteroid by kinetic impact. Based on the change in the binary orbit period2, we find an instantaneous reduction in Dimorphos’s along-track orbital velocity component of 2.70 ± 0.10 mm s–1, indicating enhanced momentum transfer due to recoil from ejecta streams produced by the impact3,4. For a Dimorphos bulk density range of 1,500 to 3,300 kg m–3, we find that the expected value of the momentum enhancement factor, β, ranges between 2.2 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos. If Dimorphos and D...
The Asteroid Impact Mission is an ESA mission, part of a joint collaboration with NASA in the AIDA (Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment) mission. The primary goal of AIDA is to assess the feasibility of deflecting the heliocentric path of a Near Earth Asteroid binary system, by impacting on the surface of the smaller asteroid of the couple. To this purpose, AIDA includes a kinetic impactor, DART by NASA and an observer, AIM by ESA. The consolidated mission analysis of AIM spacecraft is presented with a breakdown into the main mission phases. AIM is planned to be launched in late 2020 and to arrive at Didymos system in middle 2022. Suitable transfer solutions and launch window are presented; the approaching strategy to rendezvous with the binary system is discussed and close proximity operations at the asteroid are finally described. The results and analyses presented in the paper are currently performed by OHB System AG, Politecnico di Milano and Spin.Works under the European Space Agency study for phase A/B1 design of the AIM spacecraft. The project is currently ongoing and the mission analysis will be further iterated and refined through the design phase.
Successful kinetic impact into an asteroid for planetary defence
Nature
Although no known asteroid poses a threat to Earth for at least the next century, the catalogue of near-Earth asteroids is incomplete for objects whose impacts would produce regional devastation1,2. Several approaches have been proposed to potentially prevent an asteroid impact with Earth by deflecting or disrupting an asteroid1–3. A test of kinetic impact technology was identified as the highest-priority space mission related to asteroid mitigation1. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a full-scale test of kinetic impact technology. The mission’s target asteroid was Dimorphos, the secondary member of the S-type binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. This binary asteroid system was chosen to enable ground-based telescopes to quantify the asteroid deflection caused by the impact of the DART spacecraft4. Although past missions have utilized impactors to investigate the properties of small bodies5,6, those earlier missions were not intended to deflect their t...