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Achievement of the Planetary Defense Investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission

2024; Institute of Physics; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3847/psj/ad16e6

2632-3338

N. L. Chabot, A. S. Rivkin, A. F. Cheng, O. S. Barnouin, Eugene G. Fahnestock, D. C. Richardson, A. M. Stickle, Cristina A. Thomas, C. M. Ernst, R. T. Daly, E. Dotto, A. Zinzi, Steven R. Chesley, Nicholas Moskovitz, Brent W. Barbee, P. A. Abell, Harrison F. Agrusa, Michele T. Bannister, Joel Beccarelli, Dmitriy Bekker, Megan Bruck Syal, B. J. Buratti, Michael Busch, Adriano Campo Bagatín, Joseph Chatelain, Sidney Chocron, G. S. Collins, L. Conversi, T. M. Davison, Mallory E. DeCoster, J. D. P. Deshapriya, Siegfried Eggl, R. C. Espiritu, T. L. Farnham, Marin Ferrais, Fabio Ferrari, Dóra Föhring, Oscar Fuentes-Muñoz, Igor Gai, Carmine Giordano, D. A. Glenar, Edward Gomez, Dawn Graninger, Simon Green, Sarah Greenstreet, P. H. Hasselmann, Isabel Herreros, Masatoshi Hirabayashi, Marek Husárik, Simone Ieva, Stavro Ivanovski, Samuel L. Jackson, Emmanuël Jehin, Martin Jutzi, Özgür Karatekin, Matthew M. Knight, Ludmilla Kolokolova, Kathryn M. Kumamoto, M. Küppers, F. La Forgia, M. Lazzarin, Jian‐Yang Li, Tim Lister, Ramin Lolachi, Michael P. Lucas, Alice Lucchetti, R. Luther, Rahil Makadia, E. Mazzotta Epifani, Jay W. McMahon, Gianmario Merisio, Colby C. Merrill, Alex J. Meyer, Patrick Michel, M. Micheli, A. Migliorini, Kate Minker, Dario Modenini, F. Moreno, Naomi Murdoch, Brian P. Murphy, Shantanu P. Naidu, Hari Nair, Ryota Nakano, Cyrielle Opitom, Jens Ormö, J. Michael Owen, M. Pajola, E. E. Palmer, P. Palumbo, Paolo Panicucci, Laura M. Parro, Jason M. Pearl, Antti Penttilä, D. Perna, Elisabeta Petrescu, Petr Pravec, Sabina D. Raducan, K.T. Ramesh, Ryan Ridden-Harper, J. L. Rizos, A. Rossi, Nathan X. Roth, Agata Rożek, B. Rozitis, E. V. Ryan, W. H. Ryan, Paul Sánchez, T. Santana-Ros, Daniel J. Scheeres, P. Scheirich, Cem Berk Senel, C. Snodgrass, Stefania Soldini, D. Souami, Thomas S. Statler, R. A. Street, T. J. Stubbs, J. M. Sunshine, Nicole J. Tan, G. Tancredi, C. L. Tinsman, Paolo Tortora, Filippo Tusberti, James D. Walker, Dany Waller, K. Wünnemann, Marco Zannoni, Yun Zhang,

Space Satellite Systems and Control

Abstract NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earth-based observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1 σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β , resulting from DART's kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DART's investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DART's successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DART's kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESA's Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense.