“For this challenge all relevant equations of orbital motion are provided via a Python script,” notes Dario Izzo, scientific coordinator of the ACT. “But in practice for both challenges, no special astronomical or physical knowledge should be necessary as to provide a solution. We are curious to learn whether a machine learning approach, based on training made possible through practice data, is sufficient to solve these problems, or a good deal of physical insight is necessary. ”

Planetary Defence challenge

The ‘Planetary Defence challenge’ looks ahead to September next year, when NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Team slams into the smaller of the Didymos binary asteroids – the first large-scale test of the kinetic impact technique that might one day be utilised to deflect an incoming asteroid threatening Earth.