Industry Related News: United States – March, 2021:
The team at NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics laboratory have been working for years on the development of DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). This project is referred to as a kinetic impactor and is meant to disrupt and ultimately change the trajectory of incoming asteroids enough to prevent them from striking the Earth. This is accomplished by making contact with the smaller “moon” orbiting around the main asteroid in question, which could alter the main asteroid’s path by an incremental amount until it is no longer on a collision course with our atmosphere. DART will have an instrument called the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) which is a navigation and targeting imager that supplies ample data before contact is made. The DART project is NASA’s first official foray into planetary defense and could represent a massive advancement in protecting the Earth from atmospheric threats.
There are still several milestones for the DART spacecraft to pass before it is able to test its abilities as an impactor, however. NASA must first test the current designs’ viability as a spacecraft that can travel and operate within the harsh conditions of space. Similar to the Webb Space Telescope that had to be fortified and tested for rigorous travel, the DART craft will have to contend with low temperatures around -455° F (-270.45° C, ~2.7 K). The device will be monitored within a vacuum thermal testing chamber at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to determine if the current design is suitable for space travel or if additional measures need to be taken to protect its electronic components. This also applies to the device’s two Roll Out Solar Arrays, called ROSA, which were designed to be light and compact but can’t afford to be too delicate or fragile to survive takeoff.
The DART, along with its DRACO imager and ROSA attachments will continue to be analyzed in the vacuum thermal testing chamber before its scheduled mission in Fall of 2022. The team at Johns Hopkins APL was especially excited to be working with NASA on this milestone planetary defense project. With its advanced thermal chamber technology and pedigree for exceptional work in the field, the APL and NASA are poised to have a promising partnership.
As the DART has months of environmental testing ahead of it, it is worth acknowledging how important thermal testing can be to a successful product or consumer launch. Khoury Industries offers multiple thermal cycling solutions for products from the aerospace and military industries to smaller electronics and medical sensors. Contact us today to learn more about how our thermal testing solutions can help your development.
NASA, “DART Mission Heats Up, Enters Environmental Testing“ nasa.gov, February 9 2021, Accessed 27 February 2021.
NASA, “DART Launch Moves to Secondary Window“ nasa.gov, February 17 2021, Accessed 27 February 2021.
ABOUT KHOURY INDUSTRIES
Khoury Industries is a worldwide leader in temperature testing equipment for device characterization, thermal cycling equipment, and failure analysis. Khoury Industries designs and manufactures custom thermal testing chambers and microwave thermal testing fixtures used in a variety of industries including: military, space, automotive, medical, research, and communication fields. The Khoury Box and the patented ELI-1000 have quickly become industry favorites as thermal testing devices used to ensure the reliability of industrial and electronic products through prolonged exposure to extreme conditions.
For more information, contact:
Penny Aicardi
Khoury Industries
5 Mechanic Street
Bellingham, MA 02019
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