Patrick Michel

Summary

Patrick Michel (born 25 February 1970 in Saint-Tropez, France) is a French planetary scientist, Senior Researcher at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), leader of the team TOP (Theories and Observations in Planetology) of the CNRS and Université Côte d'Azur Lagrange Laboratory at the Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice (France), and also a Global Fellow of the University of Tokyo.[1][2][3][4]

Patrick Michel, Côte d'Azur Observatory, 2020.

Studies edit

Michel began his advanced education with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Space Techniques in 1993 where after he moved to the study of asteroids. He received his PhD in 1997 for a thesis titled "Dynamical evolution of Near-Earth Asteroids".

Academic topics edit

 
Michel with the book Asteroids IV, 2017

He is specialist of the physical properties and the collisional and dynamical evolution of asteroids. His researches focus on the collisional processes between asteroids, the origin of near-Earth objects, binary asteroids, their physical properties, their response to various processes (impacts, tidal encounters, shaking) as a function of their internal and surface properties, and the risks of impacts with the Earth. His results have been the subject of more than 200 publications in refereed international journals, and have been featured on the covers of both Science[5] and Nature.[6]

Participations to space missions and mission concepts edit

Michel is deeply involved in several space missions and mission concepts devoted to the investigation of small bodies and asteroid hazard.

NEOMAP committee and Don Quijote mission concept edit

He belongs to the Near-Earth Object Mission Advisory Panel (NEOMAP) mandated by European Space Agency (ESA) to recommend space missions devoted to a better understanding of the impact threat.[7] In 2004, the committee recommends the Don Quijote mission concept, which consists in making a test of asteroid deflection by using the technique of an artificial impactor. This mission was studied at ESA until 2007.[8][9]

AIDA: DART and Hera edit

He is leading the European science team of AIDA, for Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment, an international space cooperation inspired by Don Quichotte, a collaboration between ESA and NASA aimed at deflecting the secondary of the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos using a kinetic impactor. AIDA will go into Phase A study at ESA and NASA in February 2015.[10]

Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx edit

He is a co-I on both the JAXA Hayabusa2 and NASA OSIRIS-REx sample return missions to a primitive near-Earth asteroid. Hayabusa2 was launched successfully on December 3, 2014 and OSIRIS-REx will be launched in September 2016.[11][12]

 
Stephan Ulamec and Patrick Michel on 21 June 2023 in Flagstaff, Arizona (USA) during a break at the Asteroid, Comet, Meteor (ACM) Conference, celebrating the naming of IDEFIX©, the JAXA's MMX mission DLR CNES rover, as its two Co Principal Investigators.

MMX edit

Together with Dr Stephan Ulamec, they are the co-Principal Investigators of IDEFIX©, the rover developed in partnership by CNES and DLR for the JAXA MMX mission to return samples from Phobos, a moon of Mars, which will be launched in 2026 to arrive on Phobos in 2029 and return to Earth in 2031, with a deployment of the rover to perform in-situ surface analyses in 2028.[13][14][15]

MarcoPolo-R edit

He was a co-chair of the science study team of the MarcoPolo-R sample return mission during the assessment study phase (2011-2013) at the ESA.[16]

Participations to activities financed by the European Commission edit

NEOShield and NEOShield-2 edit

He is also responsible of the Work Package on numerical simulations of collisions and asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor in the European Consortiums NEOShield and NEOShield-2 funded, respectively, by the FP7 and the Horizon2020 framework programmes (2012-2017).[17][18][19]

NEO-MAPP edit

He is the coordinator of the NEO-MAPP project, also under the Horizon2020 framework programme (2020-2023).[20][21]

Roles in French and international organisations edit

He has wide involvement in international organisations and belongs to the Science Program Committee of CNES (French space agency).

He has been elected Secretary of the Division 3 (Planetary Science) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2009-2012.[22]

He also belongs to the Action Team 14 (AT14) of the COPUOS (for Committee On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) at the United Nations aimed at recommending actions and an international organisation to deal with the asteroid impact threat and to the Steering Committee of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) recommended by AT14.[23]

In 2023, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.[24][25]

Media edit

He actively contributes to public outreach and is regularly solicited by various media to participate in French TV shows, radio shows and magazine interviews, and to contribute to the writing of papers in popular journals on topics related to small celestial body hazards, space missions and planetary formation (cf. external links).

Michel is the lead editor of the book Asteroids IV published in 2015 by the University of Arizona Press.[26][27]

In 2023, he is also the author in French of an outreach science book called "A la rencontre des astéroïdes : missions spatiales et défense de la planète" that can be translated into "Encountering asteroids: space missions and defending the planet".[28]

Awards edit

In 2006 he received the "Young Researcher" prize from the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics.[29]

In 2012, he was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society.[30]

In 2013 he was awarded the International Prize Paolo Farinella in Planetary Science from the University of Pisa in recognition of his work on the collisional process.[31]

Asteroid (7561) PatrickMichel was named in his honour by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).[32]


References edit

  1. ^ "Patrick Michel reçoit la médaille de la ville". Site officiel de la ville de Saint-Tropez (in French). 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  2. ^ "CV Home - Archive ouverte HAL". cv.hal.science. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  3. ^ "Patrick Michel". lagrange.oca.eu. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  4. ^ "academieairespace.com" (PDF).
  5. ^ Michel, P., Benz, W., Tanga, P., Richardson, D.C. 2001. Collisions and Gravitational Reaccumulation: Forming Asteroid Families and Satellites. Science 294, 1696-1700.
  6. ^ Michel, P., Benz, W., Richardson, D.C. 2003. Fragmented parent bodies as the origin of asteroid families. Nature 421, 608-611.
  7. ^ NEOMAP (ESA). "NEOMAP (ESA)" (PDF).
  8. ^ "Don Quijote mission". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  9. ^ "Don Quichotte". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  10. ^ "AIDA". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  11. ^ Strickland, Ashley (2020-12-05). "Hayabusa2 mission lands the first subsurface asteroid sample on Earth". CNN. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  12. ^ "ResearchGate: Patrick Michel".
  13. ^ Michel, Patrick; Ulamec, Stephan; Böttger, Ute; Grott, Matthias; Murdoch, Naomi; Vernazza, Pierre; Sunday, Cecily; Zhang, Yun; Valette, Rudy; Castellani, Romain; Biele, Jens; Tardivel, Simon; Groussin, Olivier; Jorda, Laurent; Knollenberg, Jörg (2022). "The MMX rover: performing in situ surface investigations on Phobos". Earth, Planets and Space. 74 (1): 2. Bibcode:2022EP&S...74....2M. doi:10.1186/s40623-021-01464-7.
  14. ^ "Le rover de la mission MMX baptisé IDEFIX® !". Mmx (in French). 2023-07-03. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  15. ^ Andrew Jones (2024-01-04). "Japan delays MMX Mars moon sample-return mission to 2026". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  16. ^ Michel, P.; Barucci, M. A.; Cheng, A. F.; Böhnhardt, H.; Brucato, J. R.; Dotto, E.; Ehrenfreund, P.; Franchi, I. A.; Green, S. F.; Lara, L. -M.; Marty, B.; Koschny, D.; Agnolon, D. (2014-01-01). "MarcoPolo-R: Near-Earth Asteroid sample return mission selected for the assessment study phase of the ESA program cosmic vision" (PDF). Acta Astronautica. 93: 530–538. Bibcode:2014AcAau..93..530M. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2012.05.030. ISSN 0094-5765.
  17. ^ "Projets Européens". lagrange.oca.eu. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  18. ^ "NEOShield - A global approach to NEO Impact Threat Mitigation, Patrick Michel and the NEOShield Consortium" (PDF). 2015.
  19. ^ Michel, P.; Yu, Y. (1 September 2017). "Ejecta evolutions and fates from the AIDA impact on the secondary of the binary asteroid Didymos: a NEOShield-2 project contribution". S2CID 210616723. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  20. ^ "Lead & Management". NEO MAPP. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  21. ^ "The European Commission funded NEO-MAPP project in support of the ESA Hera mission: Near-Earth Object Modelling And Payload for Protection, Albert Falke, Stephan Ulamec, and the NEO-MAPP Team". 2020.
  22. ^ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". www.iau.org. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  23. ^ "CV Home - Archive ouverte HAL". cv.hal.science. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  24. ^ "Patrick Michel". www.oca.eu. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  25. ^ "October 1, 2023 Press Release: IAA elects 104 new Members" (PDF). iaaspace.org/. 1 October 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  26. ^ "Asteroids IV". UAPress. 2017-07-12. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  27. ^ Asteroids IV. William F. Bottke, Francesca E. DeMeo, Patrick Michel. Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute. 2015. ISBN 978-0-8165-3218-6. OCLC 933515878.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  28. ^ "À la rencontre des astéroïdes - Éditions Odile Jacob". www.odilejacob.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  29. ^ "Site WEB SF2A". www.sf2a.eu. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  30. ^ "Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  31. ^ "Paolo Farinella Prize – Europlanet Society". Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  32. ^ (7561) Patrickmichel. "(7561) Patrickmichel".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links edit

  • (in French and in English) Patrick Michel's page on his observatory website
  • Researchgate.net profile page of Patrick Michel
  • (in French) TOP Team
  • NEOMAP Committee, the NEO Mission Advisory Panel (ESA web site)
  • (in French) Patrick Michel, astrophysicien (audio), Ciel et Espace radio podcasts, un métier, une passion, Patrick Michel
  • (in French) interview d'un chercheur du laboratoire lagrange (Patrick Michel) sur la RTS (CNRS Côte d'Azur web site)
  • (in French) Entretien avec Patrick Michel investigateur principal de la mission Hera (ESA web site)
  • Simulation of asteroid spin creating binary asteroids (ESA web site)
  • Patrick Michel: Where do asteroids come from? on ESA website
  • Presentation by Patrick Michel (IAC2022, plenary panel on planetary defence) on Vimeo web site
  • NEO Working Group, some new knowledge regarding NEOs, current projects and perspectives (IAU web site)