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Johns Hopkins, ESA Team for First Asteroid Intercept Mission
PARIS, France — A space rock several hundred metres across is heading towards our planet and the last-ditch attempt to avert a disaster – an untested mission to deflect it – fails. This fictional scene of films and novels could well be a reality one day. But what can space agencies do to ensure it works?
ESA is appealing for research ideas to help guide the development of a US–European asteroid deflection mission now under study.
Concepts are being sought for both ground- and space-based investigations, seeking improved understanding of the physics of very high-speed collisions involving both man-made and natural objects in space.
AIDA: Double Mission to a Double Asteroid
ESA’s call will help to guide future studies linked to the Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission (AIDA).
This innovative but low-budget transatlantic partnership involves the joint operations of two small spacecraft sent to intercept a binary asteroid.
AIDA Mission concept. – ESA
The first Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, designed by the US Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory will collide with the smaller of the two asteroids.
Meanwhile, ESA’s Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) craft will survey these bodies in detail, before and after the collision.
Asteroid impact monitor spacecraft. – ESA
The impact should change the pace at which the objects spin around each other, observable from Earth. But AIM’s close-up view will ‘ground-truth’ such observations.
“The advantage is that the spacecraft are simple and independent,” says Andy Cheng of Johns Hopkins, leading the AIDA project on the US side. “They can both complete their primary investigation without the other one.”
But by working in tandem, the quality and quantity of results will increase greatly, explains Andrés Gálvez, ESA AIDA study manager: “Both missions become better when put together – getting much more out of the overall investment.
“And the vast amounts of data coming from the joint mission should help to validate various theories, such as our impact modelling.”
Moonandback
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2013-01-15 14:36:50
Source: http://moonandback.com/2013/01/15/johns-hopkins-esa-team-for-first-asteroid-intercept-mission/
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This one is unlikely to hit the earth (though how would you ACTUALLY tell people THAT?!)
But it was only spotted on september 2012 (and will skim past the sun and hopefully no where near earth on September 2013).
The asteroid that will pass by in march 2013 is about 350 metres wide. The one coming close in September 2013 is 3 KILOMETRES wide. Even Apophis – the so called ‘doomsday asteroid’ no one was certain about is only about 350 metres wide.
The one that wiped out the dinosaurs was 10 kilometers wide. But this one – if it hit (which it won’t!) – wouldn’t be banging into earth from behind – if it hit it (which it wont’) – it would be banging into it head on like two trains smashing into each other head on!
Conclusion and message: It passes by every few years and WE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT FOR CENTURIES UNTIL 4 MONTHS AGO!!!
MORE MONEY ON SPACE!!!
Pay all the astronomers and scientists millions in wages!!