Systems Engineering Seminar

Presented by:
Elena Adams
Mission Systems Engineer, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)



Tuesday, September 21, 2021 - 1:00pm (ET)



WebEx
Meeting number (access code): 199 485 6977
Meeting password: SES@NaSA21
415-527-5035 US Toll

Abstract:

Asteroids have been hitting Earth for billions of years. In 2022, the Earth strikes back with DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Launching this fall, DART is the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test, demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection technology. The DART mission will prove that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate itself to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it, a method of asteroid deflection known as kinetic impact. DART will also demonstrate and test a slew of other new technologies for NASA, and help us better prepare for an asteroid that might pose a threat to Earth, should one be discovered.

The DART spacecraft, which was built and will be operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, at the direction of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), will launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the DART mission, its challenges, and the launch plan.

Biography:

Elena Adams is the mission systems engineer on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Prior to joining APL in 2008, she was a planetary scientist, working on missions to Jupiter and Saturn. Since pivoting to her role as a systems engineer, she worked on missions to Mars, Earth’s Van Allen Belts, Europa, and the Sun, as well as studies for NASA’s PDCO and NOAA. She won multiple grants for developing technology for future space exploration, including a hopping lander to explore asteroids and a sampling system for collecting water from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. She received a B.S. in applied mathematics from the University of Virginia; an M.S. and Ph.D. in atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences, and an M.E. in space systems from the University of Michigan.