From 11 to 13 September the Aula Ottagona of the Terme di Diocleziano in Rome hosted an AIDA (Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment) workshop. The main objective of the event was to take stock of the current state of the ongoing analyses in support and preparation of DART for NASA.

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is a NASA mission that sets out to flight test necessary planetary-defense technology for heading off possible asteroid impact with the Earth. This mission, together with ESA's HERA mission and the LICIA CubeSat of the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italian Space Agency), make up the umbrella mission of international collaboration AIDA.

GMV is head of the international consortium that is seeing to the design and development of the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system of HERA, Europe's first ever planetary defense mission. Additionally, GMV Romania is responsible for the GNC system analysis and mission of Juventas, one of the two cubesats to be brought back onboard HERA.

A group of engineers from GMV Spain and GMV Romania took part in the AIDA workshop. Particularly noteworthy was the paper given by Andrea Pellacani, Head of Project of HERA's GNC at GMV, on the HERA phases of Close Proximity, Trajectories and Constraints in the framework of the activities of Working Group 5 of Operations and Data Analysis.

The workshop debated the presentations of the various AIDA working groups to pinpoint areas that call for further research and might lend themselves to greater collaboration between the various groups.

GMV's participation in this workshop vouches for the company's internationally recognized space technology prowess and underlines its ongoing commitment to planetary defense.