An artist’s impression of an asteroid flying close to Earth
Erik Simonsen/Getty Images
Two landers from a private American company will be part of an armada to the asteroid Apophis when it flies past Earth in 2029.
Apophis, around 400 meters in diameter, was discovered in 2004. Initial calculations showed it had an alarmingly high chance of hitting Earth – up to 2.7 percent – in April 2029, in which case it could destroy an area the size of a city. Later improvements showed that there was no chance of impact for at least 100 years.
Nevertheless, on April 13, 2029, the asteroid will pass extremely close to Earth, just 32,000 kilometers away, closer than geostationary satellites and close enough to be visible to the naked eye, a once-in-thousand-year event for an asteroid of this size. Several spacecraft from the US, Europe, Japan and China plan to study the asteroid before, during and after the flyby.
Among those missions, US company ExLabs has announced that the seaplane spacecraft, called ApophisExL, has passed a key review phase ahead of a planned launch in 2028. It will carry up to 10 spacecraft and instruments from various customers, including two landers, one from an unnamed source and another from Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology.
“The goal is to get images from the surface of the asteroid,” says Miguel Pascual, chief science officer and co-founder of ExLabs. “There’s really exciting science that can happen.”
No private company has ever landed on an asteroid, although American asteroid mining company Astroforge plans to launch a mission this year to land on an asteroid.
ExLabs will deploy the Chiba Institute of Technology’s lander, which is the size of a shoebox, from 400 meters above Apophis. It will then descend at about 10 centimeters per second, gently touching the surface after an hour, with a camera taking pictures.
The landing will take place up to a week after Apophis flies past Earth, to prevent any chance of accidentally changing the asteroid’s orbit. Any collision ahead of the flyby will be magnified by Earth’s gravity, says Pascual.
The European-Japanese mission to Apophis, called Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety), will also include a lander, says Patrick Michel of Côte d’Azur University, the mission’s project scientist. It will land a few days before the flyby and will use a seismometer to measure any landslides caused by Earth’s gravitational tug – and may even record touchdowns by ExLabs’ landers.
“Any opportunity to touch and feel the softness or hardness of the surface is great,” says Michel.
However, Michel encourages effective communication between all the missions to ensure that they run smoothly and do not collide with each other. – It is important that we coordinate, he says. “The world will be watching. We don’t want to fool around.”
Topics:
