ESA to test asteroid deflection
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Artist’s concept of the US-European Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission (AIDA)
"Energy flash" produced when a projectile launched at speeds up to 17,000 mph (27,000 km/h) strikes a target
Images of the near pass of asteroid Apophis from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory
Johns Hopkins' Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft (Image: Johns Hopkins University)
AIDA mission profile (Image: Johns Hopkins University)
ESA's Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) craft
Article Summary
When you’re trying to keep a rogue asteroid from hitting Earth, you’d better get it right the first time. With this in mind, the European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for new ideas to help develop a US-European asteroid deflection mission. With a target date of October, 2022, the purpose of the mission is to send a pair of spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid where one will impact it while the other observes the effect.
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