| Mission type | Dual asteroid probes |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA / NASA |
| Website | AIDA study |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | |
| Rocket | |
| Dimorphos[3] impactor | |
| Spacecraft component | DART |
| Impact date | 26 September 2022 |
| (65803) Didymos[4] orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | Hera, Milani, Juventas |
| Orbital insertion | January 2027[5] |
The Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) missions are a proposed pair of space probes which will study and demonstrate the kinetic effects of crashing an impactor spacecraft into an asteroid moon. The mission is intended to test and validate impact models of whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.[6]
The original plan called for a European spacecraft, the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM), to operate in synergy with a large NASA impactor called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and observe the immediate effects of the impact. AIM was cancelled in 2016 when Germany was unable to fund its portion, and after some backlash within European Space Agency (ESA), AIM was replaced in 2018 with a smaller spacecraft called Hera that will launch five years after DART to orbit and study the crater on the asteroid. Hera will also deploy two European CubeSats in deep space for close-up asteroid surveying: Juventas and Milani.[7]
DART impacted Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of 65803 Didymos, on 26 September 2022.[8] Hera will arrive at Didymos in December 2026, four years and three months after DART's impact.[9]
- ^ Talbert, Tricia (17 February 2021). "DART Launch Moves to Secondary Window".
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
sn-20221020was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "AIDA study". European Space Agency. 19 December 2012. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CarnelliSMPAG09was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ The Juventas CubeSat in Support of ESA's Hera Mission to the Asteroid Didymos Hannah R. Goldberg, Özgür Karatekin, Birgit Ritter, Alain Herique, Paolo Tortora, Claudiu Prioroc, Borja Garcia Gutierrez, Paolo Martino, Ian Carnelli. 33rd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites
- ^ AIDA mission rationale Archived May 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. ESA, 25 May 2012.
- ^ "Industry starts work on Europe's Hera planetary defence mission". 15 September 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
- ^ Bardan, Roxana (26 September 2022). "NASA's DART Mission Hits Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test". NASA. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
- ^ "Hera". www.esa.int. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
