The European Commission funded NEO-MAPP project in support of the ESA Hera mission: Near-Earth Object Modelling And Payload for Protection
<p>NEO-MAPP stands for Near Earth Object Modelling And Payload for Protection. This project&#160;is funded by the H2020 program of the European Commission and addresses the topic "Advanced&#160;research in Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and new payload technologies for planetary&#160;defence" (SU-SPACE-23-SEC-2019).</p> <p>NEO-MAPP selected as primarily reference scenario the ESA Hera mission, which has recently&#160;been approved by the ESA Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, in November 2019 for launch&#160;in 2024. The main goal of NEO-MAPP is to support the development and data analysis of NEO&#160;missions, as Hera and provide significant advances in both our understanding of the response&#160;of NEOs to external forces (in particular a kinetic impact or a close planetary approach), and&#160;in the associated measurements by a spacecraft (including those necessary for the physical and&#160;dynamical characterization in general).</p> <p>The NEO-MAPP objectives, include: (1) Pushing the limits of numerical modelling of the response&#160;of NEOs to a kinetic impact, as well as of their physical and dynamical properties while&#160;maturing European modelling capabilities linked to planetary defence and NEO exploration;&#160;(2) Increasing the maturity of multiple spaceborn and landed European instruments directly&#160;related to planetary defence, while focusing on measurements of surface, shallow sub-surface&#160;and interior properties of NEOs; (3) Developing algorithms and simulators to prepare for closeproximity&#160;operations and payload data analyses and exploitation; (4) Developing innovative and&#160;synergetic measurement and data-analysis strategies that combine multiple payloads, to ensure&#160;optimal data exploitation for NEO missions; (5) Developing and validating robust GNC strategies&#160;and technologies enabling surface interaction and direct response measurements performed&#160;by CubeSat or small/micro-lander architectures.</p> <p>Building on the expertise of NEO-MAPP participants, who are directly involved in the Hera&#160;mission and some of them also in other relevant missions (e.g., NASA OSIRIS-REx, JAXA&#160;Hayabusa2 and MMX), the NEO-MAPP consortium is ideally set to further advance NEO&#160;scientific research and payload technologies. NEO-MAPP will also dedicate considerable resources&#160;to developing important and innovative synergies between the two sub-topics. As such,&#160;NEO-MAPP will provide significant advances in our understanding of NEOs while at the same&#160;time build upon and sustainably increase expertise of European scientists and engineers in both&#160;planetary defence efforts and small-body exploration.</p> <p>Acknowledgement: This project has received funding from the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020&#160;research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870377 (project NEO-MAPP).</p>