[meteorite-list] Asteroid Deflection Mission Seeks Smashing Ideas

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:09:38 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201301151909.r0FJ9cQI029086_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/NEO/Asteroid_deflection_mission_seeks_smashing_ideas

Asteroid deflection mission seeks smashing ideas
European Space Agency
15 January 2013

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.

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.

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.

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 Andres Galvez, 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."

Watch the skies

Last week the 325 m Apophis asteroid passed close to Earth, and in
mid-February the recently discovered 2012 DA14 space rock will
pass closer than many satellites.

ESA is seeking to assess the impact hazard from Near-Earth Objects
(NEOs) through its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme.

"AIDA offers a promising platform for the test and demonstration
of different deflection methods," adds Detlef Koschny, managing
SSA's NEO effort. "It is therefore important to ask the users
early on what they'd like to do with a mission like this."


The science of hypervelocity

For some time, ESA and its international partners have been
studying missions to investigate asteroid deflection techniques.

The most popular concept involves a "hypervelocity impact" - a
collision at multiple kilometres per second, at such high speed
that materials do not just shatter car-crash-style but are
vaporised, turning even metal and solid rock into the hot soup of
charged particles called plasma.

Such impact testing would help assess if asteroid deflection could
be accomplished.

Increased knowledge of hypervelocity impacts would also have wider
uses. Planetary scientists would gain fresh insight into our Solar
System's violent early history, including clues to the origin of
life and the magnitude of extinction events.

And in practical terms, growing levels of orbital debris increases
the risk of highly destructive hypervelocity impacts with critical
satellite infrastructure or humans working in orbit. Studying this
kind of impact will help to quantify the hazard and inspire
protection techniques.

The AIDA Call for Experiment Ideas is being released on 1 February
at http://www.esa.int/neo. For further information, see
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/NEO/High_impact_factor_space_R_D_AIDA_Call_For_Experiment_Ideas.
Received on Tue 15 Jan 2013 02:09:38 PM PST