Optical observations of the BepiColombo spacecraft as a proxy for a potential threatening asteroid. (July 2021) - Micheli, Marco
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. Highlights: We obtained ground-based optical astrometry of BepiColombo during its 2020 fly-by. The astrometry allowed us to compute an accurate trajectory for the fly-by. We compare the results with a ground-truth from radio tracking. We used the campaign as a proxy for an incoming potentially threatening asteroid.