The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission is a joint effort by the United States’ NASA and the European Space Agency to investigate the threat of an asteroid collision with our planet. The first mission, dubbed the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM), is set for October 2020 in which a spacecraft will enter and observe the Didymos binary asteroid system. Didymos is 800 meters wide and is orbited by a 170 meter wide asteroid, the “Didymoon”. The Didymoon is the selected target for NASA and ESA. Although the exact nature of the space agencies’ experiments is still being decided, ESA may possible make contact with the smaller asteroid using a lander. CubeSats will be used to gather initial data, including optical and thermal maps.
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