AIM at binary asteroid system

Launching in October 2020, ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission spacecraft will be humanity’s first mission to a binary system – the paired Didymos asteroids, which come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon. AIM will perform high-resolution visual, thermal and radar mapping of the moon. It will also put down a lander – ESA’s first touchdown on a small body since Rosetta’s Philae landed on a comet in November 2014.