Space, the Dart mission has started with the Italian microsatellite LiciaCube

A potential danger for our planet, the risk of a fatal impact for the Earth with an object that comes from the Universe like the one that spelled the end of the dinosaurs. It took off successfully and with the aim of avoiding an epilogue thus the first space mission that will experience the deviation of an asteroid. NASA’s Dart mission started with a Space X Falcon 9 at 7.23 Italian time from the Californian base of Vandenberg with on board the Italian microsatellite LiciaCube, acronym for Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids, a technological jewel made in Italy of only 30x20x10cm and about 13 kilograms. The microsatellite is an ASI project carried out entirely in the factories of the Italian company Argotec in Turin and is the first satellite built in our country to undertake a journey into deep space. The objective of NASA’s Dart-Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission is to divert the course of the 170-meter-large moon Dimorphos that lives around the asteroid Didymos. The system orbits the Sun and the Dart mission aims to experiment with how to move its path to one day avert an impact that is more tragic for the Earth. The journey of Dart and LiciaCube – which will film the impact and document each step – will last about 10 months and the rendezvous with the asteroid will take place 11 million kilometers from Earth. “Today we record continuous impacts with very small objects with our planet and this mission will allow us to experiment if we will be able to change the course of a potentially dangerous asteroid. The small cubesat LiciaCube of the Italian Space Agency will have a highly challenging task in this mission. of planetary defense unique of its kind that will pave the way for many other missions and it is no coincidence that this assignment has been entrusted to Italy – the only international partner of the mission – confirming the solidity of bilateral relations between NASA and ASI and of reliability of the national industry and of the scientific team made up of research bodies and Italian universities “explained the president of the Italian Space Agency, Gioirgio Saccoccia, during the event organized at the ASI headquarters to follow the launch of Dart live and LiciaCube. Godmother and moderator of the meeting was the host Licia Colò who talked on the ASI stage with the Italian astronaut of the European Space Agency Luca Parmitano, the CEO of Argotec, David Avino, the astrophysicist Barbara Negri, head of ‘Human Flight and Scientific Experimentation Unit of the Italian Space Agency, and the famous’ space’ designer Leo Ortolani. To reach the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos whose course will have to be diverted, explained Negri, “behind there is a whole computation of orbital dynamics, a complex computation of trajectories”. And the action of hitting Dimorphos, the ASI astrophysics noted, “is another strategic chapter of this mission that seeks to thwart a threat from heaven”. David Avino, CEO of Argotec, observed that “after about two years of work, this morning it was really impressive to be able to witness the start of the LiciaCube microsatellite completely designed and built within our Turin plants”. “Argotec’s satellite platform is among the most technologically advanced in the world, capable of operating in deep space, guaranteeing high performance despite its small size. We are really proud – said Avino – to be on board such an ambitious and ambitious NASA mission. of future usefulness for planetary defense. The next appointment is set for autumn 2022 when, from our Argotec control center in Turin, we will support the satellite’s activities in real time: from the release from the American probe to the acquisition of images high resolution of the impact of Dart “. The objective of the mission is to reach, in the autumn of next year, the binary system composed of the asteroid Didymos and its satellite Dimorphos and make the American probe Dart impact against the latter at high speed while LiciaCube, remaining at a safe distance , will have the task of photographing and acquiring the impact data to verify if the asteroid will deviate its trajectory. Dart will therefore be the first test, in full scale, of the kinetic impact technique for the purpose of Planetary Defense for the protection of the Earth, if in the future there are dangerous situations caused by celestial objects that intersect the Earth’s orbit. Neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth, but their orbit around the Sun makes them transit close enough to our planet for telescopes to observe the aftermath of the Dart collision and calculate how effective the mission will have been in altering the trajectory. of Dimorphos following the impact. The variation of the period of revolution of the latter around its more massive rocky companion will be measured in the phases immediately following the impact and then cumulatively for the following months and years. In addition to what was detected from Earth, the images acquired by LiciaCube will provide unique elements acquired in situ and in the moments just after the impact, also relevant for the measurement of orbital deflection. LiciaCube’s all-Italian scientific team includes researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf), the Polytechnic University of Milan, the Universities of Bologna and Parthenope of Naples, Ifac-Cnr of Florence, and is coordinated by Elisabetta Dotto ( Inaf). In recent months, INAF has coordinated with the Galileo National Telescope (Tng) a campaign of spectroscopic observations of the asteroid Didymos that covers the entire rotation of the object. Dart will be able to verify the possibility of modifying the orbit of the smallest asteroid of the Didymos double system through the impact of the American probe, at a speed of about 21,000 kilometers per hour, about 11 million kilometers from Earth. LiciaCube, after a journey of about 11 months aboard Dart, will separate from the NASA probe a few days before the impact to become a ‘photojournalist’ in space and acquire high resolution images of the crater and the debris generated by the collision, to allow a full assessment of the effects of the impact. All the data produced in this phase of the mission will be fundamental to verify the effectiveness of the variation capacity of the asteroid orbit through this technique. Furthermore, the Italian scientific teams coordinated by the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) and the American ones coordinated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (Apl) will use the data acquired by Dart and LiciaCube for investigations on the nature and composition of the asteroid and to determine with a greater accuracy than the effects that had the impact of Dart. LiciaCube will also have the opportunity to acquire images of the non-impacted hemisphere, to study the surface of the asteroid. LiciaCube is based on Argotec’s Hawk 6 platform, it is a 30x20x10 cm microsatellite, in jargon a 6U, and is equipped with very powerful optics and artificial intelligence software designed and developed in the Italian laboratories of Argotec, it will be able to carry out the recognition of celestial objects in the field of view of the camera, to autonomously carry out orbital maneuvers and to capture images and scientific data that will be indispensable in the validation of this technique for the defense of the Earth from potential external threats such as asteroids , explained Argotec’s LiciaCube team in connection with Asi from Turin. A “team made up entirely of very young people” as Argotec CEO David Avino underlined during the live connection from the ASI headquarters.