DART uses Jupiter and Europa to test navigation systems

Image courtesy of NASA.

NASA's Direct Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) craft has utilized Jupiter and its moon Europa to test the craft's autonomous navigation systems in preparation for its eventual impact with the asteroid Didymos.

Described as DART's "equivalent of an eye and a brain", the Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation (SMART Nav) system created by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) allows DART to autonomously maneuver itself by sending images taken by a high resolution camera, known as the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO), through a series of algorithms that allow the craft to make the necessary course corrections.

On July 1 and August 2, DART's operations team tested the SMART Nav system by targeting Europa as it emerged from behind Jupiter in order to better understand how the system interprets the images DRACO views. This was done due to the resemblance of Europa's emergence to how Didymos's moonlet Dimorphos will emerge during the impact. The above image is a composite image of Jupiter and its moons taken from approximately 435 million miles away from the planet.

While DART obviously did not directly impact Jupiter or its moons, the tests gave the team a much greater understanding of how DRACO views space that in turn allows scientists to better interpret the images sent by DART when the craft eventually makes its final approach.

DART's progress can be tracked via APL's DART webpage.