The Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) is a candidate mission currently undergoing preliminary design work. <br /> <br />Launched in October 2020, AIM would travel to a binary asteroid system – the paired Didymos asteroids, which will come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’. <br /> <br />This smaller body is AIM’s focus: the spacecraft would perform high-resolution visual, thermal and radar mapping of the moon to build detailed maps of its surface and interior structure. <br /> <br />The main AIM spacecraft is planned to carry at least three smaller spacecraft – the Mascot-2 asteroid lander, being provided by DLR (Mascot-1 is already flying on JAXA’s Hayabusa-2), as well as two or more CubeSats. AIM would test optical communications and inter-satellite links in deep space, essential technology for future exploration. <br /> <br />If approved, AIM would also be Europe’s contribution to the larger Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission: AIDA. In late 2022, the NASA-led part of AIDA will arrive: the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, probe will approach the binary system – then crash straight into the asteroid moon at about 6 km/s. <br /> <br />AIM is intended to be watching closely as DART hits Didymoon. In the aftermath, it will perform detailed before-and-after comparisons on the structure of the body itself, as well as its orbit, to characterise DART’s kinetic impact and its consequences. <br /> <br />Credits: ESA/ScienceOffice.org <br /> <br />This video is also available in the following languages: <br /> <br />Français - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3n97h0_asteroid-impact-mission-francais_tech <br />Deutsch - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3n97h1_asteroid-impact-mission-deutsch_tech <br />Español - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3n97h3_asteroid-impact-mission-espanol_tech
