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[cameron]

The mission was proposed a while back. It was discussed this week at the European Planetary Science Congress 2015. Mission Summary:

The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission is a joint international collaboration of ESA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Observatoire de la Côte d´Azur (OCA), NASA, and John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The primary goals of AIDA are to test our ability to perform a spacecraft impact on a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid and to measure and characterize the deflection caused by the impact.

In the context of AIDA two independent spacecraft will be sent to Didymos:
-An asteroid impactor - the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission led by the John Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory in the United States
-An Asteroid rendezvous spacecraft - the ESA Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).

An equal timing of the experiment is set for both missions. Despite the joint procedure, both spacecraft are still able to pursue their missions fully independently. Therefore if for some reason one of the spacecraft cannot contribute to the joint campaign, the other will be able to achieve the individual mission goals.

Phys.org: "AIDA double mission to divert Didymos asteroid's Didymoon"

An ambitious joint US-European mission, called AIDA, is being planned to divert the orbit of a binary asteroid's small moon, as well as to give us new insights into the structure of asteroids. A pair of spacecraft, the ESA-led Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and NASA-led Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will rendezvous with the Didymos asteroid and its small natural satellite, known informally as 'Didymoon'. Following a period of study of both asteroids and detailed mapping of Didymoon by AIM, DART will impact with Didymoon and AIM will assess the mission's effectiveness in diverting the moon's orbit around Didymos. The AIDA mission is being discussed today at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2015 in Nantes, France.

Patrick Michel, the lead of the AIM Investigation Team, said, "To protect Earth from potentially hazardous impacts, we need to understand asteroids much better – what they are made of, their structure, origins and how they respond to collisions. AIDA will be the first mission to study an asteroid binary system, as well as the first to test whether we can deflect an asteroid through an impact with a spacecraft. The European part of the mission, AIM, will study the structure of Didymoon and the orbit and rotation of the binary system, providing clues to its origin and evolution. Asteroids represent different stages in the rocky road to planetary formation, so offer fascinating snapshots into the Solar System's history."

AIM is due for launch in October 2020 and rendezvous with the binary system (65803) Didymos in May 2022. Binary systems make up around 15% of the asteroid population. Egg-shaped Didymoon (about 160 metres in diameter) orbits the diamond-shaped Didymos asteroid (about 750 metres in diameter) every 12 hours at an altitude of 1.1 kilometres. Ground-based observations show that Didymos is probably a common 'chondrite', or stony asteroid formed of dust from the primitive solar system. At present, Didymoon's mass and density are unknown.

Infographic of the AIM mission:

ESA AIM Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-5J7iSLkkA

 

[FrankCaron]

As long as we don't send along Kevin Smith, Bruce Willis can handle this.

 

[liquidtmd]

We're getting closer

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

Wouldnt it be hilarious if they deflect it so it collides with earth.

 

[hydragonwarrior]

I kind of want to see it deflected into Venus - maybe it'll kickstart something...

 

[Poodlestrike]

Wouldnt it be hilarious if they deflect it so it collides with earth.

Uh...

Yeah.

"Hilarious."

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Awesome to see joint missions between space agencies. And 2020 is not that far away either.

 

[davepoobond]

Wouldnt it be hilarious if they deflect it so it collides with earth.

i'm imagining the terrorism of the future right about now.

 

[cameron]

Wouldnt it be hilarious if they deflect it so it collides with earth.

Some more info about NASA's DART component:

In late 2022, the NASA-led part of AIDA will arrive: the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, probe will approach the binary system – then crash straight into the asteroid moon at about 6 km/s.

“AIM will be watching closely as DART hits Didymoon,” explains Ian Carnelli, managing the mission for ESA. “In the aftermath, it will perform detailed before-and-after comparisons on the structure of the body itself, as well as its orbit, to characterise DART’s kinetic impact and its consequences.

“The results will allow laboratory impact models to be calibrated on a large-scale basis, to fully understand how an asteroid would react to this kind of energy. This will shed light on the role the ejecta plume will play – a fundamental part in the energy transfer and under scientific debate for over two decades.

“In addition, DART’s shifting of Didymoon’s orbit will mark the first time humanity has altered the dynamics of the Solar System in a measurable way.

“It will also give us a baseline for planning any future planetary defence strategies. We will gain insight into the kind of force needed to shift the orbit of any incoming asteroid, and better understand how the technique could be applied if a real threat were to occur.”

A similar collision was achieved back in 2005, when NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft shot a copper impactor into asteroid Tempel 1. But the Didymos moon is several tens of times smaller than Tempel 1, so much greater precision will be required to strike it – and the possibility of altering its orbit should be correspondingly higher.

The Didymos moon is nearly three times larger than the body thought to have caused the 1908 Tunguska impact in Siberia, the largest impact in recorded history. An equivalent asteroid striking Earth would be well into the ‘city-killer’ class, leaving a crater of at least 2.5 km across and causing serious regional and climate damage.

The 2013 Chelyabinsk airburst, whose shockwave struck six cities across Russia, is thought to have been caused by an asteroid just 20 m in diameter.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...ogy/ESA_s_planetary_defence_test_set_for_2020

Short video by JHU APL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIuHeY3jfIo