Trial Run Mission Will Make Sure Asteroid Deflection Method Really Works
AIDA Mission Concept The US-European Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission, or AIDA, would send two small spacecraft to intercept a binary asteroid. The first Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two asteroids. Meanwhile, the 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. ESAESA wants your help to guide development of an international asteroid mission. We may be safe from killer asteroid Apophis, but plenty of other near-Earth asteroids could pose a threat sooner or later. Sure, humans could send up a probe or a space sail in a desperate attempt to deflect it--but what if that mission fails? We had better start testing now, so we're sure this type of Hollywood...