Benchmarking impact hydrocodes in the strength regime: Implications for modeling deflection by a kinetic impactor

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA-sponsored mission that will be the first direct test of the kinetic impactor technique for planetary defense. Here, the DART spacecraft will impact into Didymos-B, the moon of the binary system 65803 Didymos and the resulting period change will be measured from Earth. Impact simulations will be used to predict the crater size and momentum enhancement expected from the DART impact. Because the specific material properties (strength, porosity, internal structure) of the Didymos-B target are unknown, a wide variety of numerical simulations must be performed to better understand possible impact outcomes. This simulation campaign will involve a large parameter space being simulated using multiple different shock physics hydrocodes. In order to understand better the behaviors and properties of numerical simulation codes applicable to the DART impact, a benchmarking and validation program using different numerical codes to solve a set of standard problems was designed and implemented.