American Scientist

The experiment will take place at Didymos, a binary near-Earth asteroid. Didymos measures 780 meters across. DART also will target its smaller companion, Dimorphos, which is only about 160 meters wide—more typical of the size of asteroids considered to pose the greatest threat to our planet.

In October 2022, DART will attempt to change the path of Dimorphos using the “kinetic impactor technique”: It will fly into the asteroid like a battering ram. The impact of the 500-kilogram spacecraft should reduce Dimorphos’s velocity by about one half of one percent, enough of a reduction to measure easily from Earth.

DART will navigate autonomously into Dimorphos at 6.6 kilometers per second, shortening the moonlet’s orbit by 4.2 minutes.

Five days before impact, DART will deploy an Italian-built CubeSat to capture images of the event.

Imaging Camera

Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) is DART’s only science instrument; it will study the structure of Dimorphos and will guide targeting.

Flat Antenna

In place of a typical radio dish, DART uses a compact, low-cost Radial Line Slot Array antenna.

Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA)

This new design stows in spools during launch, then unfurls into 8.6-meter-long electricity-generating wings.

Ion Propulsion Engine

The NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster, Commercial (NEXT-C) is a high-efficiency thruster that accelerates the spacecraft by electrostatically expelling xenon ions.