Optical observations of the BepiColombo spacecraft as a proxy for a potential threatening asteroid

Marco Micheli, Detlef Koschny, Luca Conversi, Frank Budnik, Bill Gray, Toni Santana-Ros, Rafał Reszelewski, Michał Żołnowski, Marcin Gȩdek, Bruce Gendre, David Coward, Igor E. Molotov, Vasilij Rumyantsev, Alexios Liakos, Sergei Schmalz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the results of our ground-based astrometric observation campaign of BepiColombo during its Earth fly-by on 2020 April 10. The observational circumstances induced by the fly-by geometry made this event an excellent proxy for a close fly-by or an imminent impact of a natural body with a diameter of a few meters, with the added benefit of having a ground-truth orbit (from radio tracking) to compare with our purely optical orbit determination.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)251-258
Number of pages8
JournalActa Astronautica
Volume184
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2021

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