Friday the thirteenth of April 2029 shall be our fortunate day.
Apophis, a 375-metre-wide asteroid, will safely move Earth at a distance of lower than 32 000 kilometres. For a few hours, Apophis will be nearer than satellites in geostationary orbit and visual to the bare eye from Europe and Africa.
House companies have despatched various spacecraft to asteroids, however we’ve by no means had a mission at an asteroid because it sweeps previous a planet. This grand pure experiment provides a distinctive alternative to examine in actual time how an asteroid responds to a powerful exterior power – and the European House Company goals to have a front-row seat.
To this finish, ESA’s House Security Programme has proposed the Speedy Apophis Mission for House Security (Ramses). If permitted, Ramses would launch a 12 months forward of the Apophis flyby, travelling by way of house to rendezvous with the asteroid months earlier than its encounter with Earth.
Ramses would use a suite of scientific devices to measure Apophis’s dimension, form, composition, rotation and trajectory as it’s pulled and stretched by Earth’s gravity. It wouldalso deploy two smaller spacecraft on the asteroid to examine Apophis up-close.
Apophis poses no hazard to Earth throughout the flyby, however an asteroid of this dimension passes thisclose to our planet solely as soon as each roughly seven thousand years. By seizing this exceptionally uncommon alternative to review an asteroid earlier than, throughout, and after a planetary encounter, Ramses would assist us put together for the day that we might must deflect a hazardous object on a collision course with Earth.
A cornerstone of the Planetary Defence section of ESA’s House Security Programme, Ramses would exhibit Europe’s skill to quickly design, launch and function a mission to an asteroid of excessive significance.
When the world appears to be like as much as see Apophis passing overhead, Ramses might be flying alongside, uncovering the secrets and techniques of the Photo voltaic System’s historic constructing blocks, and serving to us be taught how to guard our planet from any that come too shut for consolation.
