Clementine 2 (DSPSE 2)

Clementine 2 [BMDO]

The BMDO funded Clementine 2 was a mission to fire impactors, based on anti-missile interceptors, against asteroids during fly-bys of asteroids 433 Eros and 4179 Toutatis.

The Clementine 2 asteroid intercept mission, as with Clementine 1, would have been the most cost-effective approach to combining important technology demonstrations with real scientific missions. Data on the mechanical strength of asteroid Toutatis would have provided vital input to the construction of weapons capable of deflecting asteroids or comets on a collision course with Earth.

Scientifically, the probe impacts would have allowed the acquisition of data pertaining to the dynamic strength of surface material and data on the properties of the regolith and on stratification below the surface, and would have potentially allowed the measurement of thermal diffusivity between the interior and the surface. These determinations would have been accomplished by means of high-resolution imagery of the impact crater and its surroundings in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wave bands from the spacecraft flying by some 30 minutes after the probe strike.

Clementine 2 was to be launched on a Taurus-1110 launch vehicle, but was cancelled in 1997.