Five Missions Exploring Asteroids - The Cosmic Companion VIP Newsletter 22 November, 2021

Examining the five major missions to exploring the nature of asteroids - and perhaps saving us from catastrophe.

Five missions are readying to open up secrets of asteroids around our solar system. We look at each of these unique spacecraft and their intriguing targets.

This week on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion, we take a close-up look at asteroids – those lumps or rock, metal, and ice racing around our solar system. We're going to examine five major missions happening right now, examining asteroids, and potentially, saving us from the fate of the dinosaurs.

Bill Bottke, Director of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) joins us talking about the Psyche mission, exploring a metal-rich asteroid for the first time.

In addition, we will also be talking with Esen Ercan Alp, senior physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the few people in the world studying samples from the asteroid Ryugu returned by Haybusa2.

We also look at the Dart mission – the first-ever test in space designed to deflect an asteroid off course by impacting it with a spacecraft.

Together, we …