Würzburg 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 2: Planets and small Objects
EP 2.2: Vortrag
Dienstag, 20. März 2018, 11:30–11:45, BSZ - Pabel HS
What’s a rubble pile asteroid? DISCUS - a twin CubeSat mission wants to find out. — •Patrick Bambach1, Jakob Deller1, Esa Vilenius1, Sampsa Pursiainen2, Mika Takala2, Hans Martin Braun3, and Manfred Wittig4 — 1Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research — 2Tampere University of Technology — 3RST Radar Systemtechnik AG — 4MEW-Aerospace UG
A big fraction of asteroids with d>240m are suspected to be loose piles of rocks and boulders bound together mainly by gravity and weak cohesion. Still, to date the size and distribution of voids and monolith inside these "rubble-pile" is not known.
To perform a full interior reconstruction a stepped frequency radar is currently under development. The platform for this instrument is a 6U CubeSat, a spacecraft concept that benefits from standardization, high production numbers and cheap launch opportunities. While NASA will launch their first Deep Space CubeSats in 2018, ESA is currently investigating 4 CubeSat mission concepts.
With reference to the ESA concept, we have developed a mission design to fly to an asteroid and perform bi-static radar measurements. Using inversion methods developed for medical tomography the data will allow to reconstruct the interior of a small body.
The results could help to gain a better understanding of the formation of the solar system. In addition, the findings could increase the predictability of asteroid impact consequences on earth and may allow improving future concepts of asteroid deflection.