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Understanding Small-Body Missions

How we reached the asteroids and comets — the flybys, orbiters, landers, impactors, and sample-return missions that explored them, from Giotto at Halley to OSIRIS-REx at Bennu and DART at Dimorphos. Built on real NASA/JPL, ESA, and JAXA mission data that reuses the platform's spacecraft, rockets, asteroids, and comets; planned missions claim no results they have not achieved and nothing is fabricated.

In pictures

Beginner
  1. 1.1Why explore small bodies?Asteroids and comets are pristine leftovers of planet formation — and potential hazards.
  2. 1.2Flyby missionsThe quickest way to reach a new target: a single high-speed pass.
  3. 1.3Orbiters and rendezvousStaying with a body to map it in detail — NEAR, Dawn, Rosetta.
  4. 1.4LandersTouching down on a low-gravity surface — Philae, NEAR, the Hayabusa touchdowns.
Intermediate
  1. 2.1Impactor missionsDeliberately striking a body — to look inside it, or to deflect it.
  2. 2.2Sample returnBringing pieces of an asteroid or comet back to Earth's laboratories.
  3. 2.3The Hayabusa lineJAXA's pioneering asteroid sample-return missions, Hayabusa and Hayabusa2.
  4. 2.4OSIRIS-REx at BennuNASA's first asteroid sample return — 121.6 grams of a carbon-rich world.
Advanced
  1. 3.1Comet missionsFrom Giotto's first close-up of Halley to Rosetta orbiting comet 67P.
  2. 3.2Planetary defenseDART's kinetic impact and Hera's follow-up — testing asteroid deflection.
  3. 3.3What returned samples revealWater, organics, and amino acids in pristine asteroid material.
  4. 3.4Future missionsMMX, Comet Interceptor, Psyche, and the missions still to come.

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