Private company to land on asteroid Apophis as it flies close to Earth
Artist’s impression of an asteroid flying near Earth
Erik Simonsen/Getty Images
Two landers from a private American company will be part of an armada towards the asteroid Apophis when it flies past Earth in 2029.
Apophis, measuring about 400 meters in diameter, was discovered in 2004. Initial calculations showed it had an alarming probability of hitting Earth – up to 2.7% – in April 2029, in which case it could destroy an area the size of a city. Subsequent 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-a-thousands-of-years event for an asteroid of this size. Several spacecraft from the United States, Europe, Japan and China plan to study the asteroid before, during and after the flyby.
Among these missions, the American company ExLabs announced that its mothership, called ApophisExL, had passed a key review phase before a planned launch in 2028. It will carry up to 10 spacecraft and instruments from different customers, including two landers, one from an unnamed source and another from the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan.
“The goal is to obtain images of the asteroid’s surface,” explains Miguel Pascual, scientific director and co-founder of ExLabs. “There are some really exciting scientific things that can happen.”
No private company has ever landed on an asteroid, although US asteroid mining company Astroforge plans to launch a mission to land on an asteroid this year.
ExLabs will deploy the Chiba Institute of Technology lander, which is the size of a shoebox, 400 meters above Apophis. It will then descend at a speed of around 10 centimeters per second, settling gently on the surface after an hour, with a camera taking images.
The landing will take place up to a week after Apophis flies past Earth, to avoid any risk of accidental changes in the asteroid’s trajectory. Any collision preceding the flyby would be amplified by Earth’s gravity, Pascual explains.
The Euro-Japanese mission to Apophis, called Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety), will also include a lander, specifies Patrick Michel of the University of Côte d’Azur, project scientist for the mission. It will land a few days before the flyby and use a seismometer to measure landslides caused by Earth’s gravitational tug – and could even record the landings of ExLabs’ landers.
“Any opportunity to touch and feel the softness or hardness of the surface is great,” says Michel.
Michel, however, advocates effective communication between all missions to ensure that they run smoothly and do not cross paths. “It’s important that we coordinate,” he said. “The world will be watching. We don’t want to mess it up.”
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