A space-based mission to characterize the IEO population

Kurzfassung

In 2007 the German Space Agency (DLR) initiated the Kompaktsatellit series of small satellites. With growing scientific interest in the threat of future asteroid impacts on Earth, the first mission selected for the Kompaktsatellit programme was AsteroidFinder, a mission to characterise the unknown Inner Earth Object (IEO) population. The mission is based around the AsteroidFinder Instrument (AFI), a high-performance optical telescope, with asteroids identified on-ground via their apparent motion against the fixed star background. Such a challenging mission implies significant demands on the Kompaktsatellit bus platform required to support the AFI. The tight constraints of small satellite design, namely time, finance and available mass, require innovative solutions to problems. With a launch scheduled for 2014 and the project due to enter Phase C in 2011, the challenges of achieving high science with a small satellite are already apparent.