The mission being devised by the European Space Agency (ESA) and international partners has been dubbed AIDA - Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA).
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The target, 65803 Didymos, poses no risk to our planet, but at about 800 metres across the larger of the two rocks is the most easily reachable asteroid of its size from Earth.
As a 'binary' there are two asteroids orbiting each other. The smaller space rock, with a diameter of about 150m, orbits its larger counterpart every11.9 hours at a distance of about 1.1 km.
AIDA plans to intercept Didymos around the time of its closest approach to Earth in 2022 when the binary asteroid will fly within 11 million km of Earth.
AIDA comprises two separate spacecraft: an asteroid impact probe from the Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in the US, called 'DART' or Double Asteroid Redirection Test; and ESA's Asteroid Impact Monitor, or 'AIM', an asteroid orbiter.
Whilst DART smashes into the smaller asteroid at around 6.25 km/s, AIM will record what happens and take measurements of the key physical properties of a binary asteroid playing a role in the system's dynamic behaviour.
Ground-based observations will take measurements of the orbital deflection, by measuring the orbital period change of the binary asteroid. AIM's close-up view would provide "ground truth" observations of the impact dynamics as well as the resulting crater, allowing ground-based observations and models to be evaluated. Didymos will be close enough to be observable by 1 and 2 metre diameter telescopes on Earth before and after the strike.
The energy released in the AIDA impact is similar to that of a large piece of space junk hitting a satellite, so the mission will also help to model severe spacecraft damage by space debris.
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