[meteorite-list] British Plan To Send Swarm Of Miniature Spacecraft To Asteroid Belt

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:06 2004
Message-ID: <200304101556.IAA27150_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2930217.stm

Voyage to the asteroid belt
By Helen Briggs
BBC News
April 10, 2003

British scientists are planning to send a swarm of miniature spacecraft
beyond Mars to study the origin of asteroids that might pose a threat to the
Earth.

Thirty or more microsatellites would be released by a mother spacecraft on arrival
at the asteroid belt, where billions of space rocks orbit the Sun.

Like bees from a hive, the satellites, weighing as little as 20 kilograms, would
fly past different asteroids.

They would collect images and other data, sending it all back to Earth via the main
spacecraft.

The European Space Agency (Esa) has given the go-ahead for a feasibility study of
the project, which is being led by the British space company Astrium.

Project scientist Paolo D'Arrigo described the concept as a "step change" in
interplanetary exploration.

"The idea is for a swarm of spacecraft to visit 100 asteroids," he told BBC News
Online. "Although it sounds far-fetched, it's not very far from the current level of
technology that we have."

Smaller, further

Dr Simon Green, of the Space Science Research Group at the Open University in
Milton Keynes, said the probes would be the smallest ever interplanetary
spacecraft.

"They're going to where the asteroids have originated," he said. "This gives us a
chance to get up close to a very large range of these things.

"Each little 'bee' would have a very limited payload in terms of mass but you
would have very many of them."

The 'bees' would be powered by solar sails or perhaps small conventional rocket
engines.

The mission, known as Apies (Asteroid Population Investigation and Exploration
Swarm), is in its early stages, and would not be possible for perhaps a decade.

UK flotilla

Other British-led proposals, such as Simone (Smallsat Intercept Missions to
Objects Near Earth), are further down the line and have been selected by Esa for
future consideration.

Simone consists of a flotilla of five 120-kg satellites that would be sent to
rendezvous with different asteroids.

The British company behind Simone, QinetiQ, based in Farnborough, Hampshire, is
lobbying for Europe to take the lead in asteroid defences.

Although Esa is considering several proposals for such missions it has not yet
committed major funds.

Nigel Wells of QinetiQ, study manager for Simone, said he hoped Europe would
formulate a firm proposal to tackle near-Earth objects.

"We are ready and the scientific community is ready but it's up to the politicians
now," he said.

Details of Simone are to be presented at the UK/Ireland National Astronomy
Meeting in Dublin.
Received on Thu 10 Apr 2003 11:56:46 AM PDT