NASA’s Asteroid Mission will Test Planetary Defense + Powerful Propulsion Tech

A history-making asteroid mission is soon headed to space—and technology from NASA’s Glenn Research Center is going along for the ride.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test, demonstrating that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it. And while the mission’s target, the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, poses no threat to Earth, this first-of-its-kind test will provide key data about our ability to use kinetic impact to deflect an asteroid should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future.

Along for the ride to space are several technologies, including NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster–Commercial (NEXT-C), a solar-powered electric propulsion system developed by researchers at Glenn and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Although NEXT-C is not DART’s primary propulsion system, its inclusion allows for in-flight testing.

NEXT-C is a major upgrade from propulsion systems used on NASA’s Dawn and Deep Space 1 spacecraft. Like its predecessors, the thruster is an ion propulsion system, but its design boasts efficiencies in almost every area including improved performance (higher specific impulse and throughput), fuel efficiency, and operational flexibility.?

NEXT-C is a solar-powered electric propulsion system that uses a gridded ion engine, which produces thrust by accelerating ions (electrically charged atoms) formed from the xenon propellant.?        

This is the first spaceflight for NEXT-C, and researchers plan to begin operating the thruster about one month after launch. Hot fire tests and course correction maneuvers will demonstrate the thruster’s ability to perform as intended, positioning the thruster to support a wide range of solar system exploration and commercial missions.?

DART is scheduled to launch no earlier than 1:20 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 24 (10:20 p.m. PST Tuesday, Nov. 23) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Live launch coverage will begin at 12:30 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 (9:30 p.m. PST Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021), on NASA Television, the?NASA app, and the agency’s?website, with prelaunch and science briefings beginning Sunday, Nov. 21.

To follow mission updates, visit: https://dart.jhuapl.edu/.