AFP Photo / NASA
Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/apophis-radio-beacon-mission-908/
Russia’s space agency wants to send a mission to Apophis,
the notorious asteroid which may change its course and eventually collide with
Earth. It will plant a radio beacon, which will help track the celestial body
and assess the risks it poses.
The 300-meter-wide asteroid first made headlines in
2004, when NASA reported that it has 1 chance in 223 of impacting on our planet
in 2029. It was even named after the Ancient Egyptian evil god, archenemy of
the sun god Ra.
But additional observations proved that it will pass by
at the small, but safe, distance of some 36,000 kilometers from Earth. The
close approach however may result in an unpredictable gravitational pull on
Apophis, which would change its course and pose a danger in 2036, when it comes
back.
To better assess the risks it poses to the civilization
the Roscosmos plans a robotic mission to the asteroid, chief Vladimir Popovkin
announced on Monday.
The plan is “to land a module on the surface of
Apophis and set up a radio beacon there, which will work after the spaceship’s
lifetime expires,” he said at the Space Research Institute in Moscow.
The beacon signal will allow astronomers to better
calculate Apophis’ movement and the effect of the 2029 Earth flyby. The mission
would not be launched before 2020.
Popovkin, who was speaking at a solar system exploration
conference, outlined other mid-term plans Roscosmos has. These include a Venus
orbiter between 2020 and 2025, which will study the planet’s hot and dense
atmosphere. The mission may include a descending probe, although due to the
harsh environment it would only work for about one day on the surface.
Another target is Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Roscosmos
plans to send a spacecraft there in 2022 and is currently negotiating with its
European counterpart ESA, which has a similar project, over a possible closer
collaboration.
Russia also plans a new Mars mission. Popovkin said
launching such a spacecraft is no less important after the embarrassing failure
of Fobos-Grunt in November 2011. Now engineers will be able to learn from the
mistakes of the original attempt to reach the Martian moon.
A more immediate plan is the Luna Glob mission to the
Moon scheduled for late 2015. It would include returning a soil sample to Earth
and studying it from an orbiter, which would change its altitude from the
initial 100 kilometers down to 50 kilometers and later to 500 kilometers. The
soil would later be studied for possible extraction of water from it.
“We will allocate our main effort and majority of resources to the moon,” Popovkin said
“We will allocate our main effort and majority of resources to the moon,” Popovkin said
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