From 29 April to 3 May the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) held the sixth Planetary Defense Conference (PDC) in Washington, USA. This biennial conference brings together world experts to discuss the threat to Earth posed by asteroids and comets and actions that might be taken to deflect a threatening object.

IAA’s aims are to foster the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes; recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves in space science or technology; and promote international cooperation in the advancement of aerospace science.

GMV participated in this benchmark event and presented a paper under the title “HERA: Autonomous GNC and Data Fusion for the HERA mission". Moreover, Mariella Graziano, Manager of GMV’s Flight and Robotics Segment, chaired one of the sessions of the sixth Planetary Defense Conference: “Issues affecting decision to act”.

The company is currently working on diverse projects related to those to be dealt with in this conference. For example, Hera, which aims to study and demonstrate new technology applicable both to planetary defense and small-body science (i.e. characterization of the internal structure of Didymos and its moon Didymoon) or future harnessing of asteroid resources (e.g. noble metals like nickel), AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission), NEOSHIELD-2 (based on the European Commission’s forerunner project Neoshield-1) and FCS ATOMIC (Flight Control System Assessment Toolbox for Optimal Mission Cost and Performance), another of the asteroid-related initiatives.

Along these lines, one of the milestone developments of this latest PDC is recognition of the importance of testing the kinetic impactor planetary-defense option as the most promising and mature. Once NASA’s DART mission has been approved, Hera will be expected to get the best result from the deflection test, calculating the efficiency of the impact momentum transfer from the measured change of Didymos B’s orbital period.

For this reason the meeting of the planetary defense community at PDC2019 has recommended ESA member countries to approve the Hera mission as the next ESA Council meeting at ministerial level, Space19 +, to be held in Seville in November 2019. GMV is at this moment responsible for one of HERA’s most important and complex systems: the guidance, navigation and control system.

As in former conferences, as sponsor, GMV will also be awarding a prize to the three best student papers.

GMV’s participation in events like PDC showcases the company’s internationally important space-technology prowess and its commitment to defense of our planet.

 

Images credit: JHUAPL