A mission to launch a European spacecraft that will rendezvous with a 375-meter-wide asteroid that is scheduled to whisk by Earth in 2029 has taken a step closer to being realized.
On July 16, 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that preparatory work for its next planetary defense mission can progress after receiving permission from the Space Safety program board.
The Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) will see a spacecraft meet with asteroid Apophis and accompany it through its safe but exceptionally close flyby of Earth in 2029.
During the mission, scientists will observe how the asteroid Apophis is “warped and changed by our planet’s gravity” which will help prepare Earth for the possibility if a hazardous asteroid is ever on a collision course with the planet.
“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,” said Patrick Michel, Director of Research at French National Centre for Scientific Research in Nice.
‘For the first time ever, nature is bringing one to us’
He added: “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.”
Using a suite of scientific instruments, the spacecraft will conduct a thorough before-and-after survey of the asteroid’s shape, surface, orbit, rotation and orientation.
By analyzing how Apophis changes during the flyby, scientists will learn a lot about the response of an asteroid to external forces as well as asteroid composition, interior structure, cohesion, mass, density, and porosity.
The asteroid will pass within 32,000 km from Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029, and will be visible for around two billion people across much of Europe and Africa and parts of Asia.
Thankfully, it has already been ruled out by astronomers that asteroid Apophis will strike Earth but that does not mean that scientists are not preparing for the eventuality in the future.
The @esa is fast-tracking the Ramses mission to study asteroid Apophis as it passes very close to Earth in April 2029.
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) July 16, 2024
Ramses will monitor Apophis before, during, and after its close encounter to observe the asteroid's reactions to Earth's gravity, providing crucial data on its… pic.twitter.com/L23KsIwg3E
Scientists want to understand how an asteroid could be knocked off its course if it was on a trajectory for a direct hit on Earth.
Ramses needs to launch in April 2028 to allow for an arrival at Apophis in February 2029, but a decision whether to commit to the mission in full will take not take place until ESA’s Ministerial Council Meeting in November 2025.
“Ramses will demonstrate that humankind can deploy a reconnaissance mission to rendezvous with an incoming asteroid in just a few years. This type of mission is a cornerstone of humankind’s response to a hazardous asteroid. A reconnaissance mission would be launched first to analyse 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,” Richard Moissl, Head of ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, said.