A Queen’s University scientist is instrumental in a mission to steer an asteroid away from Earth – by crashing it into space.
The Center for Astrophysics Research professor is part of a larger operation that involves pointing the spacecraft at the giant rock before other spacecraft observe how well it deflects from a possible trajectory to Earth.
Professor Alan Fitzsimmons plays a role in two space missions that will measure how difficult it is to keep asteroids out of harm’s way using what NASA calls “Kinetic Impact Deflection”.
Later this year, NASA’s Double Asteroid Diversion Test ( ARROW ) will begin a mission to intercept the asteroid system Didymos. Part of this system is an asteroid called Dimorphos which if it hits Earth can destroy all cities within tens of kilometers.
The target of the DART mission is not the massive 780-meter asteroid Didymos itself, but its smaller moon called Dimorphos. DART will collide with Dimorphos at over 6 kilometers/sec in September next year, destroying the spacecraft but slightly moving the asteroid’s moon.
Professor Fitzsimmons, member of the DART research team, said, “The team at NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory designed a fantastic mission to change the orbit of Dimorphos.
“Dimorphos is about 160 m in diameter and resembles an asteroid that will be of concern to us for the next 100 years. By diverting its attention on its journey around Didymos, DART will show us that it is possible to move small asteroids that could hit us in the years to come.”
Finding out exactly what happened to Dimorphos is the task of the second space probe, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission. Professor Fitzsimmons is a member of the Science Management Board of the ESA spacecraft.
Hera will start from Earth in 2024 and reach Dimorphos in 2026 and stay there for about a year. The spacecraft will measure exactly how big Dimorphos is and how the tiny asteroid reacts to a DART strike.
This experiment will allow scientists to calculate more accurately what to do if a small asteroid is found in its path of collision with Earth.
According to Professor Fitzsimmons, DART and Hera will be humanity’s first exercise in planetary defense. The two main spacecraft will carry the smaller Cubesat spacecraft to better understand how to move the asteroid.
He added: “We held our first meeting at ESA in 2004 to begin planning a mission that would help protect us from an asteroid impact. Now, after two decades, we have an international project that is really working on a truly global issue.”
Professor Fitzsimmons will give a talk on the occasion of World Asteroid Day on Wednesday, 30 June at 5 pm with the Geological Society of London, explaining everything about asteroids and comets. Participation is free and public. To register, please visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/YOS-Asteroids-and-Comets.
World Asteroid Day falls on June 30 every year in recognition of the last major asteroid impact on Earth, that day in 1908.
–
