Foresight: A Radio Beacon Mission to Asteroid Apophis

This is a visualization of the Foresight mission, a concept design for a radio beacon mission to Near Earth Asteroid 99942 Apophis. The mission was designed by SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. (SEI) and SpaceDev, Inc. This mission won first place in the Planetary Society's International Apophis Design Competition. The competition was a worldwide contest to design an asteroid "tagging" mission to improve orbit knowledge of the asteroid Apophis.

Apophis, a 260 meter Near-Earth Asteroid, will pass between Earth and the geostationary satellite belt in April 2029. This close approach will significantly alter Apophis' orbit. There is a possibility that the asteroid will pass through one of the areas in space called "keyholes", which would cause Apophis to impact the Earth later, most likely in 2036. More precise measurements of the orbit of Apophis can confirm or reject this outcome.

SEI and SpaceDev have designed the Foresight spacecraft as one approach to obtaining such precise measurements. The spacecraft functions as a radio beacon and leverages commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies where possible, incorporating leaner approaches to spacecraft design, resulting in a low-cost, low-risk mission with a rapid development timeline.

The animation shows the rendezvous, observation, and radio tracking phases of the Foresight mission to Apophis. In the animation Apophis is notionally depicted as a 260 meter wide asteroid with surface texture similar to that of asteroid Itokawa. Shape, spin, and exact surface features are all estimated given limitations on the current knowledge of Apophis.

Principal Engineer for SEI: Dr. John Olds. Modeling and Animation for SEI: Mr. Mark Elwood.

For more detail on the design and higher resolution versions of the video for download please see the SEI news article: http://www.sei.aero/eng/ptpl.index.php?PageT=ReadNews&act=&ID=108

For more information please visit http://www.sei.aero
or contact: info@sei.aero.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• apophis
• asteroid
• foresight
• space
• works
• planetary
• defense
• SpaceWorks
• SEI

[bluesteel1111]

This IS NOT a game!!! Asteroid 99942 Apophis is real and people better wake up ane keep an eye on her!!!!!!!!!

[07mantle07]

less then 3% that it will hit

[NEGUTZA]

it will take some time to change it's trajectory so we need to prepare fast

[1thatisilluminated]

Go to theyfly(dot)com and read about the info that can save us from this asteriod. The Russians have read the info and are on the right path.

[12KingdomHearts12]

ahhhhhh!

[Gormula1947]

Exactly, with additional comment that we could be certain of likelihood of impact, and do something about it, if inclined. Urge your elected representatives to fund programs to do something about this.

[Gormula1947]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Gormula1947]

Yes

[bakhtn]

scarey shit. just hope we need less wars and more efforts on saving the world.

Ok we got plan A sorted with this. whats plan B C ...

[Cyphlix]

worst case scenario: we have to blow it up with nukes and the space team gets transported to an alien world (DIG storyline)

..great game

[12KingdomHearts12]

are we going to die?