The objective of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Participating Scientist Program (DART-PSP) is to enhance the scientific return of the DART mission through new investigations, conducted during the primary flight and post-flight phases (mission Phases E and F), that broaden and/or complement DART’s primary investigation.
The DART mission is the first full-scale demonstration of kinetic impact deflection applied to an asteroid. Scheduled for launch in the second half of 2021, DART will reach its destination, the binary asteroid system (65803) Didymos, in late September 2022. The DART project’s objectives are to hit the secondary member, Dimorphos (formerly Didymos B), with the spacecraft; to measure the resulting change in the binary orbit using Earth-based telescopes; and to combine these and other available data to estimate the enhancement in the momentum transferred to the asteroid due to ejecta from the spacecraft impact. By targeting an object in a binary system while it is in relatively close proximity to Earth, DART’s mission architecture allows Earth-based telescopes to measure the induced change in the target’s motion by way of its effect on the slow (~20 cm/s) binary orbit rather than the fast (~30 km/s) heliocentric orbit, and results in far higher precision than would be possible otherwise. With a mean diameter of approximately 160 m, Dimorphos’s size is representative of the smallest – and therefore most abundant – objects capable of causing regional or broader scale destruction if one were to impact Earth.
The DART-PSP solicits proposals for science investigations to be carried out during the primary flight and post-flight phases that significantly enhance the overall knowledge obtained from the DART mission and that address outstanding questions related to Planetary Defense. Proposed investigations shall have objectives directed toward understanding the Didymos system in particular, and (optionally) characteristics relevant to the deflection of near-Earth asteroids in general. Proposed activities may include any or all of: (a) analysis of raw and/or calibrated spacecraft data, (b) acquisition and/or analysis of ground-based data, (c) model development and/or fitting, (d) data interpretation, (e) correlative studies, (f) laboratory experiments, and (g) fundamental theory.
Deadlines:
- Mandatory NOI: Aug. 10, 2020
- Proposals: Sep. 24, 2020