08.11.2016
OHB SE DE0005936124
DGAP-News: OHB SE: OHB proceeds with consolidation phase for ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission
DGAP-News: OHB SE / Key word(s): Miscellaneous
OHB SE: OHB proceeds with consolidation phase for ESA's Asteroid Impact
Mission
08.11.2016 / 13:54
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OHB System AG, subsidiary of listed technology and space group OHB SE
(Prime Standard, ISIN: DE0005936124), has successfully competed in the
competition for the consolidation phase of ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission
(AIM).
"This is a great success and honor for OHB to manage the last remaining
consortium through AIM's consolidation phase. Thus OHB is part of the
world's first ever project to define how Earth could be protected from
being hit by an asteroid. "There can hardly be a more meaningful mission!"
says OHB's CEO Marco Fuchs.
The purpose of the mission is to investigate and characterize a distant
binary asteroid named Didymos and then to watch how it will be struck by
another spacecraft launched by NASA. The data collected will help to
develop planetary defense strategies for the case an asteroid is about to
collide with Earth. In addition the mission will provide an excellent
opportunity to validate new platform technologies for the benefit of future
deep-space missions. To this end, OHB will lead the consortium with QinetiQ
Space (Belgium), GMV (Spain), Antwerp Space (Belgium), Astronika (Poland),
GMV-PL (Poland), Spin.Works (Portugal), GMV-PT (Portugal), and GMV-RO
(Romania) which has just begun with the detailed definition work - ahead of
ESAs final decision of actually implementing the mission.
The greatest challenge is still the tight schedule, as the AIM-mission must
be launched in October 2020 to catch the asteroid called Didymos and its
moon when they are at their closest to the earth. "That's why guidance and
navigation form a crucial part of the mission design," explains OHB project
manager Marc Scheper. "First, the spacecraft needs to find its way across
480 million kilometers of space to its target asteroid. Then it needs to
perform autonomous visual detection to manoeuver around the Didymos system,
employing only a limited quantity of propellant," Scheper adds.
The Mission will provide all the technical data required to validate impact
models. "This wide array of activities now being carried out underlie how
AIM is becoming more and more of a truly European project," says Ian
Carnelli, ESA's AIM program manager. "We've just started our detailed
definition work with industry, while the decision on full implementation of
the mission will be taken at ESA's Council of Ministers next month. This is
a very important step to maintain our pace and test new approaches enabling
faster mission implementation by integrating ESA, industry and payload
teams".
This joint AIDA concept will also have a significant strategic benefit to
both space agencies, ESA and NASA. "It is inspiring to see the progress on
the AIM design as NASA continues this innovative collaboration with ESA in
the joint AIDA program", declared Lindley Johnson, Program Executive of the
Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA.
Finally, AIM and DART will both achieve substantial independent results and
this collaborative endeavor will generate respectable benefits for
international efforts on asteroid impact threat mitigation.
The AIDA-program consists of the AIM- and DART-missions
AIM must be in position before late 2022 when NASA's double asteroid
redirection test, or DART, is planned to crash into the asteroid's moon for
detailed before-and-after impact monitoring. These observations will help
determine how far the DART kinetic impactor has modified the orbit of the
asteroid's moon.
The AIM and DART missions are two components of an international mission to
be executed by ESA and NASA to demonstrate the ability to deflect an
asteroid in a project known as Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment
(AIDA).
AIDA is an exciting and cost-effective mission for demonstrating different
technologies to provide high-value asteroid science and benefit planetary
defense planning.
Contact:
Investor Relations
Martina Lilienthal
Tel.: +49 421 - 2020-720
Fax: +49 421 - 2020-613
E-Mail: [email protected]
Corporate Communications
Martin Stade
Tel.: +49 421 - 2020-620
Fax: +49 421 - 2020-9898
E-Mail: [email protected]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
08.11.2016 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
service of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements,
Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.
Archive at www.dgap.de
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language: English
Company: OHB SE
Karl-Ferdinand-Braun-Str. 8
28359 Bremen
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)421 2020 8
Fax: +49 (0)421 2020 613
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.ohb.de
ISIN: DE0005936124
WKN: 593612
Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated
Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich,
Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange
End of News DGAP News Service
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
518509 08.11.2016
|
Weitere Ad-hoc und Unternehmensrelevante Mitteilungen zu
OHB SE ISIN: DE0005936124 können Sie bei EQS abrufen
Airlines/Luftfahrttechnik , 593612 , OHB , XETR:OHB