AIDA (international space cooperation)

The mission is intended to test and validate impact models of whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

In December 2016, the European Space Agency (ESA) cancelled the development of the AIM spacecraft after Germany decided to fund the ExoMars project only.

Following AIM's cancellation, ESA director Jan Wörner stated his intentions to revive the European mission in some form.

[20] Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg's deputy prime minister, expressed regret at AIM's cancellation, and commented that his country would continue to advocate for the realization of the mission.

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) decided in 2018 to contribute to NASA a secondary spacecraft called LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids), a 6-unit CubeSat that piggybacked with DART and separated 15 days before impact on 11 September 2022 to acquire images of the ejecta as it drifts past the asteroid.

The AIDA mission is a joint international collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Côte d'Azur Observatory (OCA), NASA, and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL).

[12] NASA's DART brought a 6U flyby CubeSat along with it, called LICIACube, which was developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to image the ejecta plume.

[39] The baseline payload of Hera includes a camera, a miniaturized lidar and two CubeSats dedicated to asteroid characterisation.

The spacecraft design allows for 40 kilograms (88 lb) of additional payload mass, including the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) proposed by Japan's space agency JAXA.

[12] While most of the initial objectives of AIDA would still be met if Hera arrives after DART, as a drawback, data from direct observation of the impact and ejecta will not be obtained.