Asteroid Day Returns to Celebrate 25 Years of Dedicated Asteroid Missions
The theme for this year will be the 25th launch anniversary of NASA’s NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft, and the 2021 launch of three new asteroid missions, NASA’s Lucy, NEA Scout and DART – the world’s first mission to test an asteroid deflection technique.
On 17 February 1996, NASA launched the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission. It was the first mission dedicated to exploring asteroids and it became the first mission to orbit and touch down on an asteroid – paving the way for all future asteroid missions.
Now it’s time for another milestone mission: NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
The Chelyabinsk meteor, which shook the skies over Russia on 15 February 2013, was a startling wake up call that asteroids will occasionally hit Earth. DART will open a new frontier in asteroid science and planetary defence by impacting asteroid Dimorphos in a carefully controlled attempt to measurebly shift its orbit. Then ESA’s Hera mission will survey the impact effects of DART on Dimorphos.
All major space agencies now take asteroids very seriously. In 2020 alone there was a surge in activity. In September, ESA awarded a contract to OHB to build HERA. In October, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission collected samples from asteroid Bennu, and in December, JAXA’s Hayabusa2 returned samples of asteroid Ryugu to Earth for analysis.
Asteroid Day’s theme of 25 years of asteroid missions will be promoted throughout the month of June, kicking off with Asteroid Day TV June 1st. This year’s programme will include interviews with key personnel from the missions of yesterday and tomorrow. It will explore how technologies have changed, what scientific surprises were waiting on the asteroids, how the goals of the missions have evolved, and what the future has in store for asteroid research and planetary defence.
“We’re looking forward to producing this year’s Asteroid Day festivities virtually from Luxembourg. We have been fortunate to have had partners like Broadcasting Center Europe and SES, who have allowed us to disseminate professional video content worldwide via satellites and streaming,” says Asteroid Day Programme Director Colleen Fiaschetti, “We’re especially excited about this year’s theme. With the launch of the first-ever asteroid deflection test mission in July and the continued strengthening of global coordination between space agencies, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how far we have come and inspire the next generations of space explorers.”
In addition, Asteroid Day’s extensive network of volunteers organise thousands of independent events around the world, making it a truly global day of education and awareness. Upcoming events include: on 15 February the organizers of Asteroid Day Israel speak with OSIRIS-REx instrument scientist Dr Amy Simon; on 18 February the students on educational online peer to peer platform iDialogue speak with cosmonaut and Asteroid Foundation Vice Chair Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu.
Asteroid Day has been made possible thanks to partnerships with the Association of Space Explorers, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), the B612 Foundation, SES, the European Space Agency, Euro-Composites, OHB Systems, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the Luxembourg Space Agency and Twitch.
“Luxembourg has established itself as an international hub for the space economy, the research and exploration of space over decades. A center of excellence and a driver of innovative and disruptive technologies and business ideas. A start-up nation, champion of federating international partners and forces and founding alliances across all borders. It is the ideal hub and home for the Asteroid Day and the Asteroid Foundation. We are looking at space as an enormous opportunity and a rich resource to improve our life on Earth, to develop our economies, societies and environment. Luxembourg has a vision and we are happy to be part of it,” says Markus Payer, Asteroid Foundation Board Chair.