Flyby of Earth in 2029: Several landing missions planned for Apophis

As many as three landing probes are set to touch down on the asteroid Apophis when it flies very close to Earth in 2029. Both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the private US company ExLabs are heading for the celestial body.

Apophis will fly past Earth in April 2029 at a distance of only 32,000 kilometers. Initially, there was even a small chance that the celestial body could impact Earth, but after further investigations, this is ruled out for the next 100 years.

Investigations during Earth flyby

The ESA, among other things, wants to investigate how the asteroid deforms during its flyby of Earth and how its trajectory could be influenced should Apophis become a threat to Earth in the future. The associated ESA mission Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety) must launch in April 2028 for the probe to reach Apophis in February 2029, two months before the closest approach. As Patrick Michel, astrophysicist at the University of Côte d’Azur and one of the project managers for Ramses, confirmed to the science portal New Scientist, Ramses will also send a lander to Apophis. This is scheduled to take place a few days before the flyby of Earth. The probe will carry a seismometer on board to record possible landslides on the asteroid that could be triggered by Earth's gravity.

About a week after the Earth flyby, a lander from the Japanese private university Chiba Institute of Technology is scheduled to land. In addition, another lander from an unknown client is set to head for Apophis, about which nothing further is known. Both will be transported to Apophis by the private US space company ExLabs, whose mission for this is also scheduled to start in 2028. In the period before the Earth flyby, it is therefore likely to become crowded around the asteroid with a diameter of 375 meters. "It is important that we coordinate," says Michel. "The world will be watching. We don't want to screw it up."

Apophis was discovered in 2004 and named after one of the main antagonists in the then-current television series Stargate SG-1. This represents the ancient Egyptian god of the same name. Because initially a probability of at least 2.7 percent for an impact on Earth in 2029 was determined, the celestial body attracted a lot of attention. Thanks to additional data, this impact was ruled out, and this could later also be confirmed for the flybys in 2036 and 2069. The predictions were complicated by the fact that it could not be determined precisely enough how much Apophis would be deflected by its approaches to Earth. The asteroid has a diameter of 375 meters; a collision would therefore have catastrophic consequences.

(nen)