European Space Agency / February 2021
M-Argo

M–Argo, the ‘Miniaturised – Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer’, is ESA’s first stand-alone CubeSat mission for deep space.

This video follows M-Argo on its three-year journey from Earth, through deep space, to its destination – a small, spinning asteroid 150 million kilometers away.

When M-Argo launches, it will be the smallest spacecraft to perform its own independent mission in interplanetary space. M-Argo will rendezvous with an asteroid to characterise its shape, the mass and to see what the surface is made up of, for example minerals that might be useful as future resources.

Coordination/ Mariana Barrosa  Animations, 3D Modelling/ Rui Braz   Special Thanks/ Dr. Roger Walker, Head of the CubeSat Systems Unit, ESA