Mission engineers have conducted two test campaigns in NASA Langley’s 14-by-22-foot Subsonic Tunnel, and two in the 16-foot Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT). Four times in the past three years, the mission team has headed to Virginia to test its flight systems in one-of-a-kind facilities at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. To transport those science instruments across the moon, Dragonfly’s four pairs of coaxial rotors (meaning one rotor is stacked above the other) will need to slice through Titan’s dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The vehicle, which APL will build and operate, will be equipped with cameras, sensors and samplers to examine swaths of Titan known to contain organic materials that may, at some point in Titan’s complex history, have come in contact with liquid water beneath the organic-rich, icy surface. Testing equipment before launch is a crucial step in all missions to ensure mission success, and project teams build time into processing schedules to accommodate for potential delays.ĭART will still arrive at the Didymos binary asteroid system within a few days of the originally scheduled impact date of Septemand will carry out its kinetic impact test on the moonlet Dimorphos as planned.Dragonfly, NASA’s only mission to the surface of another ocean world, is designed to investigate the complex chemistry that is the precursor to life. While COVID-19 was not the sole factor for this delay, it has been a significant and critically contributing factor for multiple issues. This change reflects NASA’s priority for both mission success and personnel health and safety, which are paramount for all NASA missions. “To ensure DART is poised for mission success, NASA directed the team pursue the earliest possible launch opportunity during the secondary launch window to allow more time for DRACO testing and delivery of ROSA, and provide a safe working environment through the COVID-19 pandemic.” “At NASA, mission success and safety are of the utmost importance, and after a careful risk assessment, it became clear DART could not feasibly and safely launch within the primary launch window,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. This decision, in part, stems from technical challenges associated with two mission critical components: the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical-navigation (DRACO) imager, which needs to be reinforced to ensure it withstands the stress of launch, and the roll-out solar arrays (ROSA), which are delayed due to supply chain impacts resulting from, but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic. U003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eNASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribbenu003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e The DART project is currently working with SpaceX and NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) to identify the earliest possible launch opportunity within this secondary window. Based on the results of this assessment, SMD determined the primary launch period is no longer viable and has directed the DART project pursue their secondary launch window. At the request of Science Mission Directorate (SMD) senior leadership, a risk assessment was performed on the DART project schedule to determine the viability of the primary (Jto August 24, 2021) and secondary (Novemto February 15, 2022) launch periods. The mission aims to shift an asteroid’s orbit through kinetic impact – specifically, by impacting a spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos to change its orbital speed. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), NASA’s first flight demonstration for planetary defense, seeks to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid impact threat.
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