Scientists in Europe and the U.S. revealed plans today for what they're calling the 2022 Cosmic Crash in which they will attempt to collide a spacecraft with an asteroid to see what the inside of it looks like according to Space.com.
The European-led Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission (AIDA) will launch in 2019 where two spacecrafts, one built by scientists in the European Space Agency and another built in the U.S., will be sent on a three-year long journey through space to smash into asteroid Didymos.
Didymos is a "binary asteroid system" which consists of two different asteroids bound together by gravity according to Space.com. The main asteroid is approximately 2,625 feet and is orbited by a smaller asteroid which is approximately 490 feet.
"Binary systems are quite common," said Andy Rivkin, a scientist at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. according to Space.com. "This will be our first rendezvous with a binary system."
The research conducted will help with NASA's project to send astronauts to an asteroid by the year 2025 according to the Inquisitr.
There is no offical estimate on how much the cosmic crash of 2022 will cost, but the AIM craft will cost about $194 million. The DART spacecraft has a price tag of around $150 million according to Space.com.
Rivkin stated that his colleagues at John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are constructing DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, and will be one of two spaceships making the trip in six years.
The other is being built at the European Space Agency called the Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM). AIM will reportedly observe the impact when the first ship crashes into Didymos from "a safe distance." The data collected will be used and compared with data collected on Earth to full examine the crash.
"AIM is the usual shoebox satellite," ESA researcher Jens Biele said according to Space.com. "It's nothing very fancy."
The asteroid reportedly has "no chance" at crashing into Earth, which made it a perfect target for scientists for a mission like this.
The news was announced at a presentation during the 44thannual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
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