N° 45–2022: Invitation to media – Europe takes part in historic asteroid impact demonstration
9 September 2022
Journalists are invited to take part in an online media briefing on Thursday, 15 September, in advance of the planned impact of NASA’s DART mission with an asteroid later this month.
NASA’s DART (for ‘Double Asteroid Redirection Test’) mission is lined up to collide with a body called Dimorphos – a 160-m diameter ‘moonlet’ of a larger asteroid called Didymos – to try and measurably shift its orbit. Impact occurs on September 27 at 01:14 CEST.
This collision, humankind’s first planetary defence test, will be followed up by a close-up survey by an ESA spacecraft called Hera, currently under construction. Hera will return data on the asteroid’s mass and makeup, as well as measuring the crater left by DART, to help turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable ‘kinetic impactor’ method of planetary defence.
The briefing will highlight Europe’s participation in the DART mission including the Italian Space Agency (ASI) LICIACubesat, as DART’s cruise companion and real-time witness of the impact, ESA’s ground observation campaign and ground station support, as well as provide updates on ESA’s own Hera mission, planned for launch in 2024.
Media briefing (online only)
Thursday, 15 September 2022, 14:00 CEST start, in English
Registration required
13:55 – Media participants login via dedicated WebEx link
14:00 – Welcome and introduction of speakers
14:05-15:00 – Expert presentations by ESA, NASA, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and ASI speakers, including:
Ian Carnelli, Hera mission manager (ESA)
Tom Statler, Program Scientist at Planetary Defense Coordination Office (NASA)
Nancy Chabot, DART Coordination Lead (Johns Hopkins APL)
Daniel Firre, Estrack service manager (ESA)
Simone Pirrotta, LICIACube project manager (ASI, Italian space agency)
This will be followed by media Q&A and individual interview possibilities.
Additional European experts including Patrick Michel, Hera Principal Investigator CNRS (Cote d’Azur University, Cote d’Azur Observatory), Michael Kueppers, Hera project scientist (ESA), Heli Greus, HERA mission Product Assurance & Safety Manager (ESA) and Margherita Cardi, VP programmatics (TYVAK; Hera CubeSat) are expected to be in the call and available for media questions.
The media briefing will be webcast via ESA TV at: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/ESA_Web_TV
DART, Hera and AIDA
The DART mission is being developed and led for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is the lead for planetary defense activities and is sponsoring the DART mission.
Both DART and Hera are part of the largely international collaboration known as AIDA—Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment. As part of AIDA, European, American and international scientists will combine the data obtained from NASA’s DART mission, which includes ASI's LICIACube as DART cruise companion and real-time witness of the impact, and ESA's Hera mission to produce the most accurate knowledge possible from the first demonstration of an asteroid deflection.
Media registration and contact
Media representatives are requested to register via the registration form, at the latest by September 14th, EOB
https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form/
Registered media will receive the media briefing access link and further details directly via email.
Further information
NASA DART mission
https://www.nasa.gov/dartmission
ESA Hera mission
ESA Hera mission science community
Images
ESA's Photo Library for Professionals:
https://www.esa-photolibrary.com/
Terms and conditions for using ESA images: https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images
For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly:
spaceinimages@esa.int
Videos
ESA's Video Library for Professionals:
https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos_for_Professionals
Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions
For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int
Social media
For updates on DART and Hera follow
Twitter: @AsteroidWatch, @NASASolarSystem, @esaoperations, @esa_tech, @JHUAPL
Follow ESA on:
Twitter: @esa
Instagram: Europeanspaceagency
Facebook: EuropeanSpaceAgency
YouTube: ESA
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania are Associate Members.
ESA has established formal cooperation with five Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
For further information:
ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office – Ninja Menning
Email: media@esa.int
Phone: +31 71 565 6409