Abstract The Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) is part of the NASA
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first mission aiming to demonstrate the …

Abstract Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) impact poses a major potential threat to life on Earth,
and kinetic impact is currently the most mature and feasible means of asteroid defense. The …

In the last decade an increasing number of CubeSat-class spacecraft have been involved in
the execution of space missions, operating at distances from our home planet ranging …

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the Italian Space Agency's (ASI) Light
Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) and its significant role in NASA's …

Since the last few years several international space agencies are focusing their attention on
small spacecraft technologies and capabilities for missions in science, exploration, and …

In this work we present the improved capabilities of MATISSE (Multi-purpose Advanced Tool
for Instruments for the Solar System Exploration) tool which is now able to integrate …

In the last decades, small satellites have consolidated their role in support to implement
space missions in a fast cheap and effective way. Space science is one of the areas where …

Small satellites are nowadays extremely powerful, flexible and sustainable platforms that
can complement the missions usually assigned to larger spacecrafts. Modularity …

In the last sixty years of space exploration, only a handful of missions targeted Phobos and
Deimos, the two moons of Mars. All of these missions failed, preventing them from …