NASA Dart Misses Bull's-Eye

![Figure][1] CREDIT: NASA NASA's plan to conduct sophisticated operations in space using robots met with a technical setback last weekend when an agency spacecraft designed to rendezvous automatically with an orbiting satellite shut itself down. The $110 million DART mission—short for Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology—was supposed to come within 5 meters of the satellite and execute a series of maneuvers. But as DART came within 100 meters of the satellite, its sensors showed that the NASA probe was using too much fuel and automatically shut off. The probe then put itself into another orbit, where it will degrade and eventually burn up without posing a hazard. NASA has set up a team to investigate what went wrong with what was intended as a flight demonstrator for future missions. The technology is meant to help NASA deliver cargo to the international space station, service civilian, commercial, and military satellites, and help build larger spacecraft to carry humans to the moon and Mars. [1]: pending:yes