Nasa spacecraft set to hit asteroid opens eyes in space, beams back first images
3 years ago

Nasa spacecraft set to hit asteroid opens eyes in space, beams back first images

India Today  

Two weeks after it launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft has come to life in space. The probe beamed back first images of deep space as it heads to asteroid Dimorphos to demonstrate a new planetary defence system. OPENING EYES IN SPACE The spacecraft opened the circular door covering the aperture of its DRACO telescopic camera on December 7 scanning the vacuum of space and sending back first images of its environment. Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation is a high-resolution camera inspired by the imager on Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft that returned the first close-up images of the Pluto system and of a Kuiper Belt object. The mission used the stars in the image to determine precisely how DRACO was oriented, providing the first measurements of how the camera is pointed relative to the spacecraft.. "With those measurements in hand, the DART team could accurately move the spacecraft to point DRACO at objects of interest, such as Messier 38, also known as the Starfish Cluster, that DART captured in another image on December 10," Nasa said.

History of this topic

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