Synthetic Images and Colours of the Dimorphos Asteroid Ejecta Plume as seen from the LICIACube spacecraft

o The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will be the first historical test to check an asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor. o The target of DART mission is Dimorphos, the secondary element of the (65803) Didymos binary asteroid system, and the impact is expected in late September - early October 2022 o The DART spacecraft will carry a 6U cubesat called LICIACube (Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroid), provided by the Italian Space Agency and developed by Argotec, with the aim to collect pictures of the impact's effects. o On board LICIAcube two camera payloads will be hosted: LEIA, a panchromatic (400-900nm Filter, FoV equal to ±2.06°) Narrow Angle Camera and LUKE, a RGB (Bayer colour filter, FoV equal to ±5°) Camera. o LICIACube will be able to acquire the structure and evolution of the DART impact ejecta plume and will obtain high-resolution images and 2 colours data (B-G, G-R) of the surfaces of both bodies and the plume.