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The European Space Agency is preparing to send a pair of spacecraft to stalk a potentially hazardous asteroid as it swings by Earth during an unnervingly close encounter in 2029.
The Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) is set up to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis before it passes Earth and accompany it during its flyby on April 13, 2029. The spacecraft would study how Earth’s gravity alters the asteroid by comparing its shape, surface, orbit, rotation, and orientation before and after the flyby. Ramses would not only help scientists better understand the ancient space rocks of the solar system; it would also prepare Earth for future threats from an asteroid collision.
ESA recently unveiled its plan to launch Ramses in April 2028. The space agency has received the go-ahead to begin preparatory work to develop the mission, although the final decision on whether to commit to Ramses in full will take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025.
Ramses would carry two cubesats on board, designed to deploy from the main spacecraft once it arrives at the asteroid. The mission would need to arrive at Apophis in February 2029, two months before the asteroid’s close approach. Using a suite of science instruments, the pair of cubesats will conduct thorough observations of the asteroid’s physical properties before and after the flyby. By analyzing how the asteroid changes from its encounter with Earth, scientists are hoping to learn how these space rocks respond to external forces. The mission could also help scientists understand more about asteroid composition, interior structure, cohesion, mass, density, and porosity.
“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” Patrick Michel, director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, said in a statement. “For the first time ever, nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
Learning about asteroids could help scientists gather clues about the origin of planets in the solar system, and how Earth and its neighbors evolved over time. Aside from that, it could also prepare Earth for incoming threats by demonstrating the first step in redirecting an asteroid.
“Ramses will demonstrate that humankind can deploy a reconnaissance mission to rendezvous with an incoming asteroid in just a few years,” Richard Moissl, head of ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, said in a statement. “A reconnaissance mission would be launched first to analyze the incoming asteroid’s orbit and structure. The results would be used to determine how best to redirect the asteroid or to rule out non-impacts before an expensive deflector mission is developed.”
Apophis is named after an enemy of the Ancient Egyptian sun god Ra, an evil serpent that tries to swallow the star as it disappears from the skies every night. It’s only fitting that the ESA mission would be named after one of the most famous Pharaohs that ruled Ancient Egypt during its golden age.
When it was first discovered in 2004, Apophis was designated as a hazardous asteroid that could impact our planet. Later observations, however, reassured scientists that there’s no need to panic just yet, and that the asteroid has no chance of crashing into Earth for at least another century. The 1,100-foot-wide (335-meter) near-Earth object will come within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of us in 2029.
Other scientists are looking to take advantage of just how close Apophis will be to Earth. NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft, formerly known as OSIRIS-REx, is already on its way to study Apophis and observe changes the asteroid may endure from its close encounter with Earth. The spacecraft will reach the asteroid in about five years. In February, NASA hosted a workshop to seek ideas from the private sector about “innovative approaches to conduct missions during the Earth flyby of the asteroid Apophis in 2029.” In response, private space companies like Blue Origin and startup Exploration Labs have come up with proposals for missions to rendezvous with Apophis before its anticipated flyby.
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