NASA and ESA are meeting to defend the Earth against asteroids.

 Hey, folks!

Over hundreds of asteroids whizz by Earth every month where most of them are benign and pose no threat whatsoever to our planet. But, that doesn’t mean that all asteroids are risk free, which is why Asteroid researchers and spacecraft engineers from the US (NASA), Europe (ESA) and other parts of the world meet in Rome in order to discuss the latest progress in asteroid deflection methods.

The asteroid deflection method is a double-spacecraft mission, called AIDA or Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment, aimed at deviating a close-Earth encounter of the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos (1996 GT) in October 2022, states ESA. Two independent spacecraft would be sent to Didymos including an asteroid impactor - NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) alongside which an Italian CubeSat, LICIACube, will also be flying. LICIACube will analyse the impact of the asteroid and send the data to an on-ground team, reports Business Insider.

A three-day AIDA workshop will also be conducted where the two participants, NASA and ESA will be sharing the details surrounding progress and development around AIDA. ESA states that the NASA-led part of AIDA i.e. the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, probe will approach the binary system in late 2022 where it will then crash straight into the asteroid moon at about 6 km/s. ESA’s part of the mission is called ‘Hera’ which will also be conducting an analysis on the impact of an asteroid.

"But flying the two missions together will greatly magnify the overall knowledge return. Hera will in fact gather essential data to turn this one-off experiment into an asteroid deflection technique applicable to other asteroids,” states Ian Carnelli, managing Hera for ESA.

Read more at: https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Hera/Planetary_defence2

Picture: interestingengineering.com

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