The mission as approved 3 years before Arecibo collapsed and final assembly of the spacecraft was done half a year before. https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/dart-timeline-from-build-to...
The loss of Arecibo was a loss to the mission as the pictures that you most often see of Didymos were from Arecibo.
The mission itself was also a technology demonstration of a camera, autonomous navigation using that camera, solar arrays, new antenna, and ion thruster design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Asteroid_Redirection_Te...
The mission as approved 3 years before Arecibo collapsed and final assembly of the spacecraft was done half a year before. https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/dart-timeline-from-build-to...
The loss of Arecibo was a loss to the mission as the pictures that you most often see of Didymos were from Arecibo.
The mission itself was also a technology demonstration of a camera, autonomous navigation using that camera, solar arrays, new antenna, and ion thruster design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Asteroid_Redirection_Te...