Alex Trelinski
A SPANISH start-up company will design and build a satellite to land on an asteroid that will fly close to Earth in 2029.
The Elche firm Emxys has been chosen by the European Space Agency and will construct the satellite within its facilities on the Science Park of the Miguel Hernandez University.
CubeSat will be released by the Ramses spacecraft a few kilometres from the asteroid called Apophis.
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It will land on its surface and become one of the first European crafts to achieve such a task.
CubeSat will carry out detailed observations of Apophis, both in its approach phase and at landing.
It hopes to glean important information about the structure and dynamics of near-Earth asteroids, which will help plan future planetary defence missions.
Emxys CEO, Jose Antonio Carrasco, described the mission as a ‘milestone’.
“Taking part in such a project to observe one of the closest encounters of a potentially dangerous asteroid is a first-rate scientific and technological challenge,” he commented.
The Type S asteroid is approximately 375 metres in diameter and has a mass of 20 million tons.
It was discovered in 2004 and though potentially very dangerous, there is no risk of any impact for at least a century.
It is estimated that on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 31,600 kms of the Earth’s surface, which is actually closer than many satellites.
The Ramses mission has been developed to monitor the asteroid during its approach to Earth.
It will look at how the tidal pull generated by Earth’s gravity will affect Apophis in terms of structure, its surface and orbit.
The mission will include a full analysis before and after the close flyby, using a main probe equipped with optical instrumentation, two auxiliary CubeSats, and infrared spectroscopy to create a 3D map of the asteroid via light beams.
