DART & HERA, NASA/ESA Asteroid Redirection Missions Options

[nprev]

Surprised we didn't already have a thread. DART launched successfully at 0621 UTC today (23 Nov 21). Mission page here, encounter (as in collision) with small satellite of 65803 Didymos in late Sep/early Oct 2022.

[Antdoghalo]

Yay! We get to map two new objects for the price of one mission next September then try to blow one up as a cool experiment!

[Explorer1]

I remember watching Deep Impact live; what an experience, and finally to be replicated!
And of course, Hera will come after to survey the damage. It would have been nice for AIM to be funded and be there already as originally planned, but it's just as well, we really don't know how much debris will be produced, do we?

[JRehling]

I had the thrilling good fortune to watch this launch from a (considerable) distance. It's quite an interesting mission… not really space "exploration" per se, at least in its primary intent.

[nprev]

True, but we will get some science nevertheless, at least in terms of imagery.

[stevesliva]

I had the thrilling good fortune to watch this launch from a (considerable) distance. It's quite an interesting mission… not really space "exploration" per se, at least in its primary intent.

Reminds me a lot of DS-1 when I read the list of tech demonstrations on it at the JHUAPL site.

DS1 was more than 20 years ago...

[Marcin600]

From NASA Twitter: 55 minutes into its flight, the DART Mission spacecraft has separated from the SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage, and will soon begin to orient itself toward the Sun. - https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1463407550087503875 (nice video and goodbye to this spaceship forever)

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[JohnVV]

dose anyone have any news on any SPICE kernels for it's trajectory

we have ones for Lucy but what about DART

[Tom Tamlyn]

And of course, Hera will come after to survey the damage.

I hadn't heard about Hera. It's an ESA mission to send a spacecraft to 65803 Didymos, the asteroid that Dart will crash into, and survey the damage. https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Hera

There's no thread for Hera on UMSF, but there are a few posts in the Unmanned Exploration Of Comets & Asteroids topic. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ic=1951&hl=

NASA has an unrelated mission with the same name that doesn't involve robotic space exploration.

[TrappistPlanets]

I hadn't heard about Hera. It's an ESA mission to send a spacecraft to 65803 Didymos, the asteroid that Dart will crash into, and survey the damage. https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Hera

There's no thread for Hera on UMSF, but there are a few posts in the Unmanned Exploration Of Comets & Asteroids topic. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ic=1951&hl=

NASA has an unrelated mission with the same name that doesn't involve robotic space exploration.

could we just also use this thread for Hera sense DART and Hera is going to the same double asteroid system? (question mainly for nprev)

[nprev]

Good idea, since they are indeed closely related to each other. Thread title changed.

[monty python]

So much international effort almost serendipitously focused on this asteroid makes me so happy.

I love it when a plan comes together!

[Explorer1]

I recall that Hera (originally called AIM) and DART had their orders reversed, but the lack of funding on the former by ESA for several years (until restoration and renaming to HERA) meant that DART will now be the initial scouting mission. Seems a bit of a reversal (shouldn't one characterize the Didymos system fully with a scientific mission before trying to alter it with a technology demonstration?) But this approach has its advantages; DART's onboard targeting will still allow it to catch Didymos, and there is no need to shelter an expensive scientific craft from a debris plume of unknown size. LICIACube will take plenty of spectacular images, I am sure!

[TrappistPlanets]

what would be the highest resolution image possible of the asteroids?

[Floyd]

I assume you mean images from the LICIACube. Google is your friend--good to develop the skill to answer your own questions. Lots of information on this satellite including the two cameras Leia and Luke. The most detailed information I've come across in in this PDF

"LICIACube is equipped with two optical cameras (narrow and wide FoV) that allow acquiring significant images and evidence of the DART mission fulfillment. The primary instrument, named LEIA (Liciacube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), is a catadioptric camera composed of two reflective elements and three refractive elements with a FoV of ± 2.06° on the sensor diagonal. The optic is designed to work in focus between 25 km and infinity and the detector is a monochromatic CMOS sensor with 2048x2048 pixel. The latter is equipped with a Panchromatic filters centered at 650nm±250nm. The primary camera will acquire pictures from a high distance providing high level of details of the frame field.

The secondary instrument, named LUKE (Liciacube Unit Key Explorer), is the Gecko imager from SCS space, a camera with an RGB Bayer pattern filter, designed to work in focus between 400 m to infinity. The sensor unit is designed to contain the image sensor interfacing with a NanoCU, while the optics consists of a ruggedized, mission configurable aperture, lens and required spectral filters. Moreover, the hardware is capable of directly integrating the image data to the integrated mass storage."

I'll let you do the math to find the resolution.