SpaceX has completed static fire testing for the DART mission

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Slash Gear by Shane McGlaun - Nov 20, 2021

SpaceX is the company that will put the NASA DART mission into space. DART is NASA’s ambitious mission to test our ability to redirect an asteroid away from Earth using the impact of a spacecraft. The goal is to determine if the planet is ever threatened by an asteroid that could cause death and destruction, can humanity deflect the asteroid preventing the impact. Yesterday, SpaceX successfully static fired the Falcon 9 rocket that will put DART into orbit.

With the static fire test complete, the Falcon 9 has been transported back to the integration hanger to have the DART spacecraft installed. Once the spacecraft is installed atop the rocket, it will be rolled out to the launchpad again. NASA’s DART mission is currently scheduled to launch as early as November 23.

However, exactly what orbit SpaceX will place DART into is a mystery at this time. There is a chance it will be placed into a geostationary transfer orbit, but it could be placed directly into deep space. Should SpaceX put DART directly into deep space, it would be its first launch of the type.

More: https://www.slashgear.com/spacex-has-completed-static-fire-testing-for-the-dart-mission-20700079/

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NASA's DART mission to deliberately crash into an asteroid: What you need to know

The DART mission will help determine whether we can protect the planet from errant space rocks. Here's everything you need to know.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/nasa-dart-mission-to-deliberately-crash-into-an-asteroid-what-you-need-to-know/

Very soon, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, NASA's DART spacecraft will blast off into the cosmos. But this isn't any old spacecraft. Unlike beloved robotic explorers Lucy and the Parker Solar Probe, DART isn't going to send back scientific secrets of the universe. It's programmed to crash.

DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is NASA's test run of a futuristic planetary defense system that'll protect Earth from incoming asteroids by literally slamming spacecraft into them.

The goal of the DART mission is simple: NASA wants to understand if we can crash into an asteroid to prevent such a calamity from wiping us out.

As a proof of principle, the spacecraft will strike a little asteroid called Dimorphos that's orbiting a larger asteroid, Didymos. The target asteroid is about as big as the Washington Monument is tall, and on impact, it's hoped the rock's trajectory and speed will be altered.

This particular floating rock doesn't pose a threat to our planet. But if DART is successful at knocking Dimorphos slightly off course, we'll know we may have a workable tactic for one day fending off asteroids that are actually dangerous.

"Mostly, what we're looking to do is change the speed of the incoming object by a centimeter per second or so. That's not very fast, but if you do it enough seconds in advance, you can cause it to miss the Earth entirely," according to the mission overview by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.

DART works in a similar way, but it's not trying to protect the dog, it's just trying to knock a skateboarder off course. The spacecraft, which is about the size of a school bus, will fly into Dimorphos at a speed of about 4.1 miles per second. That's roughly 14,760 miles per hour (23,760 kilometers per hour).

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https://everydayastronaut.com/dart-double-asteroid-redirection-test-falcon-9-block-5/


DART Secondary Spacecraft

Flying alongside DART, the Italian Space Agency is contributing the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), which will piggyback on DART. The cube-sat will deploy from the DART spacecraft 10 days before impact, and will be used to take photos of the impact and debris field.