In the presence of Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano and Mayor Chiara Appendino, Argotec today delivered the small LiciaCube satellite to the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It will now travel to the United States to participate in the first interplanetary defense mission
Almost everything is ready for the first interplanetary defense mission in the history of mankind. In a few months, NASA will launch the Dart probe, literally “dart”, with the aim of hitting an asteroid in deep space, eleven million kilometers from Earth, to test its ability to divert its path. Italy will also be on board with the small LiciaCube satellite, built in Turin by Argotec, chosen by NASA for a particularly delicate task. The size of a shoe box, traveling at a speed of 21,000 kilometers per hour (about six kilometers per second), it will have to detach itself from the probe about ten days before impact to document the mission and collect all the data useful for subsequent analysis. Land. It will be the object made in Italy to go further into space.
DELIVERY
Today, at Argotec’s Turin plants, the small LiciaCube was formally delivered to the Italian Space Agency (ASI) which financed the program. It will soon head to the United States, where integration activities on the Dart probe will begin, for scheduled departure later this year. Together with the president of the ASI Giorgio Saccoccia and to the CEO of Argotec David Avino, the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs will greet him Manlio Di Stefano and the mayor of Turin Chiara Hangers. “ASI has always paid great attention to the challenges offered by exploration”, explained the president Saccoccia. “LiciaCube is a typical example of the Agency’s action in the exploration of space beyond the earth’s orbit and the roadmaps, currently being developed, aim at increasingly ambitious objectives; our country has both the skills and the industrial and scientific capabilities to interact with the most prestigious space realities and the fact that NASA has selected Italy is not a coincidence but the result of a long history of collaboration “.
ITALIAN EXCELLENCE
It was in fact the American agency that selected Argotec’s Hawk platform (also chosen for another important mission, the first of the Artemis program for the return to the Moon). “With the Hawk platform – explained the CEO of Argotec David Avino – an all-Italian microsatellite will succeed in monitoring the kinetic impact of a probe with an asteroid ”. More: “LiciaCube will be the Italian object that will reach such a remote target for the first time in history; these records represent a great responsibility for the Argotec team but at the same time a source of pride for Italy ”.
THE MISSION
On the other hand, the mission is delicate. The threat of a swooping asteroid on Earth does not appear (fortunately) yet concrete, but in the future it could represent an important (if not vital) risk for our planet. For this reason, NASA wants to verify the possibility of defense. Dart will point straight towards Didymos, a binary system (a class that includes about 15% of known asteroids) in deep space, about eleven million kilometers from Earth. With a mass of about 500 kilograms, it will have to impact Dimorphos, the smaller of the two asteroids, equal to about 160 meters, like the pyramid of Giza, trying to change its orbit. LiciaCube will detach first to acquire high resolution images of the crater and debris generated by the collision, to allow a full assessment of the impact effects. It will proceed in autonomous navigation, making a fly-by of the asteroid system while staying about 50 kilometers away. Everything should happen eleven months after the start, for now set for the end of this year.
THE SCIENTIFIC VALUE
“All the data produced in this phase of the mission – explained the ASI – will be fundamental to verify the effectiveness of the variation capacity of the asteroid orbit through this technique”. Furthermore, the Italian and American scientific teams will use the acquired data for investigations on the nature and composition of the asteroid. On board LiciaCube there is a concentrate of Italian excellence. The small satellite will use powerful optics and software based on artificial intelligence, capable of recognizing celestial objects in the camera’s field of view, autonomously carrying out orbital maneuvers and capturing 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.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITMENT
The American mission is part of the “Asteroid impact & deflection assessment” initiative, the result of the collaboration between the two sides of the Atlantic to discover the possibilities of an interplanetary defense. Last September, the European Space Agency (ESA) started work on “Hera”, which will start in 2024 to verify the results of Dart several years after its mission. There is a lot of Italy here too. The consortium led by the German OHB (which received a contract worth 129.4 million euros) includes Avio, OHB Italia and Thales Alenia Space, among others. Around 2026, Hera is expected to approach Didymos, for a rendezvous with the asteroid and six months of close studies on the “substantial crater” that the American probe should have been able to produce on Dimorphos.