AIAA LA-LV
Planetary Defense Workshop
(Hands-on Team Exercises)
with Asteroid Exploration Updates
Saturday, June 26, 2021, 10 AM PDT

Investigation Team Lead for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
"Planetary Defenders: Protecting the Planet with The Double Asteroid Redirection Test"

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), NASA's first flight demonstration for planetary defense, seeks to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid threat. The mission aims to shift an asteroid's orbit through a kinetic impact – specifically, by impacting the DART spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos to change its orbital speed. Though the Didymos asteroid system poses no threat to our planet, it is the ideal target for this experiment; despite being 6.8 million miles away, Didymos is still close enough to Earth where it will be observable through ground-based telescopes before and after impact.  DART is currently being assembled and tested at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in preparation for launch in November 2021, followed by the kinetic impact into the asteroid in fall of 2022.

Bio: Andy Rivkin is one of two Investigation Team Leads for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). He is an expert in asteroid studies with a focus on determining their compositions from telescopic measurements. Rivkin got his PhD in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1997, and has been at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory since 2005. When not working, he’s likely to be watching baseball or noodling on his guitar.

Aerospace Fellow, The Aerospace Corporation
"Overview of the 2021 IAA Planetary Defense Conference (PDC), and the history of the PDCs"

Dr. Ailor is a Technical Fellow with the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. He has chaired eleven international conferences, including seven on protecting Earth from asteroids, and served on the United Nations subcommittee that developed protocols for international cooperation in the event a threatening asteroid or comet is discovered.   He testified to Congress and was featured on NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, ABC News, and CNN as an expert on the Leonid meteor storm’s possible effects on satellites during the period of the storm.  He is also known for his expertise in space debris and reentry breakup, and has appeared on CNN, the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel on these topics.  He testified to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board on what might be learned from debris recovered after that event.  He provided expert commentary during the reentry of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in 2011.  In his private life, Dr. Ailor founded the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy in 1988 and served as its president for 18 years. During that time, the rganization preserved over 1000 acres of natural open space on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.