AIDA (mission)
| Mission type | Asteroid probe |
|---|---|
| Operator | European Space Agency, NASA |
| Website | AIDA study |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | DART: 300 kg (660 lb) AIM: |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | AIM: October 2020 (proposed) DART: July 2021 (proposed) |
| Rocket | AIM: Soyuz-STA/Fregat DART: Minotaur V |
| (65803) Didymos orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | AIM |
| Orbital insertion | October 2022 (proposed) |
| (65803) Didymos impactor | |
The Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission is a proposed space probe which would study and demonstrate the kinetic effects of crashing an impactor spacecraft into an asteroid moon. The mission is intended to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It would be composed of two spacecraft: AIM, which would orbit the asteroid, and DART, which would impact its moon. Besides the observation of the change of orbital parameters of the asteroid moon, the observation of the plume, the crater, and the freshly exposed material will provide truly unique information for asteroid deflection, science and mining communities.
As of 2016[update], the mission is still in the conceptual phase with a proposed launch for AIM in October 2020, and for DART in July 2021. The impact of DART would be in October 2022 during a close approach to Earth. In December 2016 the AIM spacecraft portion of AIDA was not funded to help pay for ExoMars. However, NASA has said plans to continue with its portion of the mission. This works out well as in the early 2010s NASA planetary funding was choked in favour of asteroid science to the point it could not fund its side of ExoMars
The AIDA mission is a joint international collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA), NASA, and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The project was formed by joining two separate studies, called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), an asteroid impactor developed by NASA, and a monitoring spacecraft - ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).
AIDA would target 65803 Didymos, a binary asteroid system in which one asteroid is orbited by a smaller one. The primary asteroid is about 800 m (2,600 ft) in diameter; its small satellite is about 150 m (490 ft) in diameter in an orbit about 1.1 km from the primary. Didymos is not an Earth-crossing asteroid, and there is no possibility that the deflection experiment could create an impact hazard. The assessment is ongoing.
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