DART, the NASA spacecraft on a mission to crash into an asteroid to see if that could save Earth someday, has opened its one and only eye. DART was launched in November and deployed as planned. In the past year asteroids on dangerously close paths to Earth have been increasing. In response, NASA has leveled up its tracking efforts.
The idea of using a spacecraft to impact an asteroid is not to destroy the asteroid but to deflect it and change its path. DART is what NASA calls a “kinetic impact technology” demonstration. It will hit Dimorphos a small asteroid orbiting Didymos and measure the results. Altering the trajectory of an asteroid only works if the asteroid is far away, if an asteroid appeared out of nowhere this type of mission would not have the time to save us.
It has been a month since a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched DART out into space, and now DART opened its eye. DART has only one camera known as DRACO or Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation. The images DRACO is sending to Earth are helping the team calibrate navigation and set the spacecraft on target. DRACO images are also key for the final moments of the spacecraft. In September next year, the craft will intentionally slam into the asteroid.
Using A Playstation Circuit To Save Earth From An Asteroid
The images DART sent to the navigation team of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California were used to determine its position and orientation. Analyzing the data and positions of the stars in the image the team could accurately move the spacecraft where it needed to be. The team is now looking at a cluster of stars 4,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Auriga. They will calibrate object brightness and identify optical imperfections to create adjustments to make sure DART is on target and hits its destination.
DART's single eye, the DRACO camera is also part of the spacecraft's autonomous guidance system. “We can’t joystick the ride from the ground,” Michelle Chen, the SMART Nav lead at APL explained the problem with delayed space communications. The team created a system using a circuit board that has the same capabilities as a PlayStation 1 from 21 years ago. Modern electronics are susceptible to space radiation. NASA says the circuit may be an antique but what it can do is state-of-the-art.
About 54,000 miles from the asteroid the autonomous system will take over. From then on there will be no human intervention. Flying at 13,000 miles per hour a small error could make DART miss its target. Using algorithms and the images of DRACO the system will fly into an intentional outer-space crash. It really does not get any crazier (nor more NASA-style) than this. Hitting an asteroid at high speeds with a tiny spacecraft, using rudimentary circuits and a single camera, that is what DART is out to do, to one day save our planet.
Source: DART-NASA