12/30/2021 – Ephemeris – Looking forward to some space events in 2022

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, December 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:11, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:20. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6 tomorrow morning.

If you thought 2021 was an active one in space, 2022 looks to be as exciting. The James Webb Space Telescope will continue to deploy itself as it journeys to reach it’s L2 halo orbit. It should become operational by mid-year. The launch of the uncrewed Artemis-1 mission to, and around the Moon, has been pushed back a month to no earlier than March 12th, because of having to swap out a control computer for one of its main engines. The launch of the Psyche probe to the mostly metallic asteroid of the same name will occur in August by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on a four-year journey to orbit this unique asteroid. And NASA’s DART spacecraft is scheduled to crash into the tiny Dimorphos asteroid to test a deflection method in late September.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

James Webb Space Telescope trajectory to L2 with some milestones of deployment. “ISIM” stands for Integrated Scientific Instruments Module. Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

Artemis-1 orbital plan. Click on the image to enlarge it. Credit NASA.

Psyche spacecraft at the asteroid Psyche. Credit: NASA.

Schematic of the DART mission shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos. Post-impact observations from Earth-based optical telescopes and planetary radar would, in turn, measure the change in the moonlet’s orbit about the parent body.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

11/23/2021 – Ephemeris – NASA to launch a mission to crash into an asteroid overnight tonight

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 5:07, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:51. The Moon, half-way from full to last quarter, will rise at 8:17 this evening.

As of last Sunday night, it was GO for launch of NASA’s DART Mission at 1:21 am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow morning on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. DART stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The DART spacecraft is to smash into a small asteroid named Dimorphos, that slowly orbits another somewhat larger asteroid, Didymos. Dimorphos orbits at only 7 inches per second, so even the smallest impact should alter the orbit noticeably. About a week before the planned collision, DART will release a small CubeSat to arrive 3 minutes after the collision to survey the crash site. In 2024 the European Space Agency will launch a satellite to survey the asteroid pair and note any long-term effects, to see if this technique for diverting asteroids is feasible.

Addendum

DART spacecraft with Dimorphos and Didymos. The DART spacecraft is not to scale with the asteroids. See below. CREDIT: NASA/JHUAPL

Dart and asteroids to scale with terrestrial landmarks. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

10/19/2021 – Ephemeris – Introducing the DART mission

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 6:50, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:05. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:54 tomorrow morning.

Last Saturday morning, the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids was launched. These asteroids are forever locked in Jupiter’s orbit and will never be a hazard to the Earth. Next month, NASA will hopefully launch a mission to a much closer asteroid Didymos, which is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid. The asteroid has a diameter of a bit less than a half mile (780 meters). It also has a satellite named Dimorphos, which has acquired the nickname Didymoon, 520 feet (160 meters) in diameter. The mission called DART for Double Asteroid Redirection Test will see how the impact of a spacecraft hitting the small Didymoon will affect its orbit around the larger asteroid.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is NASA’s contribution to the international Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) program to determine the effectiveness of a spacecraft kinetic impact of an asteroid in altering its orbit. Credit: NASA.