Asteroid Impact Mission (Spanish)

The AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission) mission, a candidate for development, is currently in the preliminary design phase. AIM is expected to launch in October 2020 and aims to travel to the binary asteroid system Didymos to study the moon Didymoon. The Didimos system consists of a main body approximately 800 meters in diameter and a moon orbiting this main body, approximately 170 meters in diameter. This moon is known as Didymoon. The Didimos system will approach within 11 million kilometers of Earth in 2022. AIM will scan the small Didymoon in detail with its VIS camera, thermal imaging, and high-resolution radar to construct detailed maps of its surface and interior structure. The AIM main spacecraft will carry at least three smaller probes—the Mascot-2 lander, developed by the German Aerospace Center (Mascot-1 is already flying on JAXA's Hayabusa-2 mission), as well as two or more CubeSats. AIM would thus test optical communications and inter-satellite links in deep space, a technology that will be essential for future space exploration. If approved, AIM will also be the European contribution to the AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) mission. In 2022, the NASA-led DART (Double-Asteroid Redirection Test) probe will reach the binary system and crash into Didymoon at a speed of about 6 km/s. The impact will be observed by AIM and its CubeSats. AIM's high-resolution images will assess the size and depth of the crater after impact. AIM will conduct a second phase of measurements to compare in detail the object's structure, as well as its orbit around the larger asteroid, before and after the impact. This video is also available in the following languages: English:    • Asteroid Impact Mission   French:    • Asteroid Impact Mission (French)   German:    • Asteroid Impact Mission (German)   Credit: ESA/ScienceOffice.org