The ANIME mission concept: Exploring three near-Earth asteroids with a CubeSat

The Asteroid Nodal Intersection Multiple Encounters (ANIME) mission aims to explore three near-Earth asteroids through an innovative 12-unit CubeSat spacecraft, developed under the Italian Space Agency Alcor small satellites program. The mission successfully completed an 8-month Phase A study in 2024, confirming its feasibility. ANIME’s baseline mission profile includes flybys with two Potentially Hazardous Asteroids and a rendezvous with the 40-meter-sized 2000 SG344, an object of high interest for both scientific and planetary defense considerations. The mission’s scientific objectives focus on characterizing the physical properties of these unexplored decameter-scale bodies, including internal structure, rotation state, and surface geology, which are crucial for understanding planetesimal accretion. The collected data will also enable precise orbital determination and impact solution refinement useful for planetary defense. The scientific (commercial) payload comprises a primary panchromatic optical instrument and a secondary three-band optical instrument for imaging, complemented by an X-band transponder for radio science investigations. The key results of the feasibility study are presented, covering system architecture, interplanetary trajectory design, scientific return, and operational concepts. A launch window in the 2029-2033 timeframe was considered during the study. These results highlight ANIME’s capability for addressing fundamental questions in asteroid science and planetary defense.