Asteroids: A vision of the future
On 1 March GMV’s Madrid head office will be hosting the conference “Asteroids: A Vision of the future”, bringing together members of the European Space Agency and industry experts in asteroid exploration and future asteroid missions.
This conference complements the European Space Agency’s “Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) Science Meeting”, to be held on 1 and 2 March at the European Space Agency’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC/ESA).
AIM launch is scheduled for October 2020, after which it will become the first satellite to orbit a binary asteroid system (Didymos and Didymoon), landing a module on Didymoon, the smaller of the two. AIM is the first part of the AIDA space mission, to be completed by NASA with the 2021 launch of the DART probe. DART is programed to crash into Didymoon in an attempt to change the asteroid’s orbiting trajectory and build up impact models that might then help us in the future to deflect future celestial bodies hurtling towards the earth.