2016.A.2.1. The Asteroid Geophysical EXplorer (AGEX) to explore Didymos

Author(s)

Ozgur Karatekin (1)
David Mimoun (2)
Naomi Murdoch (2)
Birgit Ritter (1)
Nicolas Gerbal (1)

Royal Observatory of Belgium, Belgium
Institut Superieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace. France

Session

A.1

Keywords

CubeSat, Airless body, Asteroid

Abstract

We present a novel concept for ESA’s CubeSat Opportunity Payload Intersatellite Network Sensors (COPINS) planned to be deployed from the ESA AIM spacecraft at the Didymos binary asteroid system: the Asteroid Geophysical Explorer (AGEX). AGEX includes two 3-U CubeSats with geophysical packages that will land on the surface of the small moon of the Didymos system. These geophysical packages will work in synergy on the secondary’s surface to fulfill a rich set of scientific and technological mission goals. This includes the measurement of mass during the ballistic descent and landing, and determination of dynamical state, local gravity, geophysical surface properties and sub-surface structure following the landing. As a secondary objective, the assessment of the DART impact on the asteroid dynamical properties will be performed. AGEX will help AIM to meet its science and technology objectives, and will demonstrate the benefits of the deployment of a network of sensors while simultaneously developing technology of relevance to future ESA missions.