the united States. – - The target is a couple of asteroid called Didymos. And the aim, to prove if we are or not prepared to divert from its trajectory, an asteroid on a collision course against the Earth. To do this, the space agencies of european and north-american ESA and NASA, have joined together to carry out a mission unprecedented in space history. After the acronym AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) hides, in fact, the best plan of planetary defense devised to date in order to avoid the catastrophic impact of a space rock against us.
it Is expected that AIDA received the green light this month of December. Therefore, the number of businesses involved, including Spanish, are already completing the work detailed definition of the different stages of this historic mission. It’s a race against the clock, because Didymos is not expected. In these moments, in fact, the two asteroids are heading at full speed towards us, and in the year 2022 will be just 11 million km away from Earth. It will be in that, and only in that moment, when they are close enough to perform the test, so that there is not a minute to lose.
AIDA will be, then, the first real-world demonstration of the technique of kinetic impact to change the trajectory of an asteroid in space. The mission consists of two spacecraft separate, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), NASA, and the AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission) of ESA. The two must test the technologies developed on both continents to divert asteroids potentially hazardous. Therefore, the main goal of AIDA is to demonstrate and measure the effects of a direct impact with a small asteroid, and to determine if it is sufficient to deflect him from his course.
The white chosen for the demonstration is system binary asteroid Didymos, which consists of a main rock of about 800 meters in diameter and the other secondary, 150 metres, that orbit around it. The impact test will be carried out against the smallest member of the couple, as their size is the most common among the asteroids that may pose a threat to the Earth.
Of the two ships, will be the american DART in charge to make an impact, and it will crash against the small moon at a velocity of approximately 6 km per second. To not miss your target, DART with a camera and sophisticated software autonomous navigation. The collision will change the speed of the small moon in its orbit around the main body in just a 1%, just enough to observe its effects with telescopes from Earth. And a percentage, in addition, suficiemtemente small as not to cause an involuntary change of trajectory that might make the rock face directly toward us.
The second ship, the european AIM, that will arrive at the asteroid a few months prior to that DART, you will use your wide range of scientific instruments to study first each and every one of the characteristics of both bodies, and observe after detail the impact of their classmate mission. AIM will conduct the first study “in situ” of an asteroid binary, will provide high-resolution images of the surfaces of both bodies and measure their masses, densities, and shapes. When the time comes, AIM is to be placed in a safe orbit around Didymos and will examine the material ejected into space after the collision of his partner. Their instruments, in addition, they will observe the effects of the impact, measure the possible transfer of material between the two asteroids, observe the crater left by DART and the way in which the material of the small moon is redistributed after the collision. AIM also estudará the internal structure of this fascinating asteroid double.
lander
in Addition, AIM will display on the lens surface, a lander called MASCOT-2 (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), to take measures and data before, during, and after impact of the DART. And released also two small satellites auxiliary, CubeSats, that collect data from the two asteroideas before and after the impact of the craft in north america.
If all goes as planned, the European Space Agency will launch AIM in October 2020, and will reach Didymos in May of 2022. NASA, for its part, will launch DART in December of 2020 in order to intercept the asteroid twice in October 2022, when the Didymos is only 11 million Km. of the Earth and it is possible to observe it directly with ground-based telescopes.
As has been said, Didymos is about and there is no time to lose. Therefore, the industry is working at a frenetic pace to arrive on time for the appointment with the asteroid double. In Europe alone, more than 40 companies from 15 different states have, since 2011, putting to point each and every one of the details of this historic mission.
In Madrid, for example, the group GMV is taking place critical evidence in the chamber of navigation provided by the Max Planck Institute German. To evaluate the navigation software based on images of the mission, GMV is making the camera to examine images that the Rosetta probe of ESA took to fly across Lutetia, an asteroid 100 km in diameter, on the way to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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