A private aerospace company is gearing up to attempt a landing on the asteroid Apophis, labeled as ‘potentially hazardous,’ during its near-Earth approach in three years.
Drawing parallels to the movie Armageddon, where a team lands on an asteroid to avert disaster, scientists plan to deploy two ‘landers’ to study this celestial body during its close encounter.
Apophis, spanning 340 meters (1,115 feet) in diameter, was first identified in 2004 and is currently on a trajectory from 140 million miles (225 million km) away.
Initial assessments indicated a substantial risk—up to 2.7 percent—of it colliding with Earth in April 2029, with the potential to devastate an area the size of a city.
However, subsequent evaluations have significantly reduced this risk, ensuring no chance of impact for at least the next century, though it will still make a very close pass.
During its close approach, merely 19,800 miles (32,000 km) above Earth’s surface, the mission will aim for two landers to successfully touch down on the asteroid’s surface.
These cube–shaped devices will take pictures of the celestial rock as they slowly approach and gently land on its surface, collecting information on the asteroid’s composition and surface structure.
‘The goal is to gain images from the surface of the asteroid,’ Miguel Pascual, chief science officer and co–founder of US company ExLabs told New Scientist. ‘There’s some really exciting science that can happen.’
A private space company will try to land on the ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid Apophis when it skims past Earth in three years’ time (artist’s impression)
Apophis, which measures 340 metres (1,115 feet) across, was first discovered in 2004 and is heading in our direction from 140 million miles (225 million km) away
ExLabs has announced that its mothership spacecraft, named ApophisExL, has passed an important review phase ahead of a planned launch in 2028.
It will carry up to 10 spacecraft and instruments from different companies, including the two landers.
One is from an unnamed source, while the other is from Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology where it is being developed with the help of students.
ExLabs will deploy the lander, which is the size of a shoebox, from 400 metres (1,312 feet) above Apophis where it will then descend at 10 centimetres per second.
Its camera will continue to take images as it gently touches down around an hour later.
The landing will take place up to a week after Apophis’s flyby of Earth, to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with the asteroid’s trajectory.
‘Giving students the opportunity to design and fly hardware that will land on an asteroid is transformative,’ Joi Ito, president of the Chiba Institute, said.
‘It reshapes how they see engineering, science and their role in humanity’s future in space.’
As shown in this diagram, the asteroid 99942 Apophis will skim by Earth at just 20,000 miles (32,000km) – one–tenth of the distance to the Moon
The mission, described as the ‘world’s first commercial deep–space rideshare’, is being supported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Historically, missions to asteroids have been limited to large, multi–billion dollar programmes led by national space agencies.
ExLabs says its model can dramatically reduce costs and barriers to participation.
‘We’re working to overcome the barriers that have long kept deep–space exploration in the hands of only the largest space agencies,’ said Keiko Nakamura–Messenger, vice president of Mission Development at ExLabs and a former NASA mission scientist.
‘There are likely dozens of advanced, space–qualified instruments sitting in cleanrooms around the world, flight spares, experiments from missions that never launched, or amazing instruments developed by college students.
‘ExLabs is building the affordable, flexible spacecraft needed to give these payloads real flight opportunities to the inner solar system.
‘Our collaboration with Chiba Tech embodies our vision of deep space exploration: internationally collaborative, commercially enabled, and open to the next generation for the future space exploration.’
No private company has ever landed on an asteroid, although there may be an attempt later this year by US asteroid mining firm Astroforge.
When Apophis skims past Earth, its trajectory will take it so low that it will pass under geostationary satellites used to monitor the weather.
It will be 10 times closer to Earth than the moon and is expected to be visible to the naked eye for billions of people.
Experts have described the flyby as a ‘once–in–a–lifetime event, providing an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to study an asteroid up close. It could also improve planetary defence models.
Multiple spacecraft from the US, Europe, Japan and China are planning to study the asteroid before, during the after the flyby.
ExLabs has been contacted for more detail.
