Spacecraft and Instruments
APL built DART and the spacecraft’s single instrument, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO). Based on the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the New Horizons spacecraft, DRACO not only snapped images of Didymos and Dimorphos on approach but also supported the autonomous optical navigation for the DART spacecraft.
DART incorporated several new technologies. Leveraging decades of missile-guidance expertise, APL developed the Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real-Time Navigation (SMART Nav) algorithms to autonomously direct the spacecraft toward its target. In DART’s final hours, SMART Nav will guide DART and, using images from DRACO, identify and distinguish between Dimorphos and Didymos.
A ride-along CubeSat named LICIACube, built by the Italian Space Agency, separated from DART 10 days before impact to image the collision and the ejected debris.
Mission Facts
Launch
November 2021
Impact at Dimorphos
September 2022
Project Manager
Edward Reynolds, Johns Hopkins APL
Investigation Co-leads
Andrew Rivkin and Andrew Cheng, Johns Hopkins APL
Program Scientist
Thomas Statler, NASA Headquarters