[[{“value”:”
We are fewer than four years away from what may be the most significant near-Earth asteroid event of the 21st century. On April 13, 2029, the asteroid Apophis — named for the Egyptian god of chaos — will pass so close to Earth that it will be visible to the naked eye across much of the globe. Nearly a third of a mile wide and weighing over 27 billion kilograms, Apophis will pass just 20,000 miles from Earth — closer than our geosynchronous satellites.
While Apophis poses no immediate danger, it offers an unmatched opportunity to prepare for future threats. Its close approach (on Friday the 13th) will mark a historic near miss. Apophis is just one of thousands of potentially hazardous asteroids that demand our attention. And in terms of projecting global space leadership, the nation that leads at Apophis will be seen as the dominant force in planetary defense.
America has a unique opportunity to lead the world — both in planetary defense and science — by being first to Apophis and collecting unprecedented before-and-after data on how this massive object responds to Earth’s gravity. And in today’s fiscally constrained environment, this leadership can be achieved with virtually no new taxpayer funding — by repurposing existing spacecraft, leveraging past investments, and embracing a public-private model that delivers results.
This American Apophis Strategy rests on two core elements: the OSIRIS-APEX mission and the Apophis Pathfinder mission.
The OSIRIS-APEX mission was approved by NASA in 2022 as an extension of the OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned America’s first asteroid sample. The spacecraft is healthy, operating in solar orbit, and on track to fly by Apophis shortly after its 2029 Earth encounter. Both the House and Senate have identified OSIRIS-APEX for continued support in their FY26 appropriation markups, recognizing its value as a strategic and scientific asset.
The Apophis Pathfinder mission is planning to use the Janus spacecraft — two small asteroid explorers — which were built and flight-qualified by NASA for asteroid flyby missions. The two spacecraft — named Serenity and Mayhem — are ready for use and can be leveraged for a pre-flyby mission to Apophis — complementing OSIRIS-APEX’s post-flyby encounter. This pairing would give the United States unmatched “before and after” data on Apophis’ surface and interior. This kind of comparison has never been done — and could revolutionize how we plan asteroid deflection missions if a future threat emerges.
The Milo Space Science Institute at Arizona State University, along with the University of Colorado at Boulder and Lockheed Martin, responded to a NASA Apophis mission partnership RFI with a joint concept for the mission. The team has pursued creative avenues to fly the mission privately, similar to commercial models employed on NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions that leverage the breadth of the space industry and growth of the space economy, but with the added benefit of being at no additional cost to NASA.
By moving forward with these missions, America would not only lead at Apophis — it would also have two new reconnaissance spacecraft in long-duration “staging” solar orbits, available for future flybys of hazardous asteroids or even interstellar objects. The OSIRIS-APEX team has already identified a potential flyby of the newly discovered potentially hazardous asteroid 2024 YR4. Once on orbit, the Janus spacecraft could continue to be reprogrammed to address future encounters with comets or additional asteroids, making maximum use of the taxpayer dollars spent to develop these spacecraft and providing unmatched flexibility for future planetary defense campaigns.
Polls consistently show asteroid monitoring is the American public’s top priority for NASA. Implementing a coordinated and innovative Apophis strategy would show NASA is listening and delivering planetary defense and science leadership.
The American Apophis Strategy is simple, powerful, and cost-effective: keep OSIRIS-APEX on track and unleash Janus through a public-private partnership. This would put the U.S. in the lead — not just at Apophis, but in planetary defense overall. As elsewhere in space, if we don’t lead, others will.
For no additional government funds, we can establish a historic and lasting program of asteroid reconnaissance in service of planetary defense. Through the American Apophis Strategy, we would show that America is ready to lead in space once again — and to meet the moment when a truly Earth-threatening asteroid is discovered.
Alexander MacDonald is the former NASA Chief Economist and the author of “The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War.”
Jim Bell is a professor and planetary scientist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, and is the Chief Scientist of ASU’s Milo Space Science Institute. He has been involved as a science team member or camera team leader in over a dozen NASA planetary robotic missions to Mars, the moon, and asteroids. Jim was President of The Planetary Society from 2008 to 2020, and has written many popular science books, including “Hubble Legacy,” “The Interstellar Age” and “The Art of the Cosmos”
Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina is a planetary scientist and Principal Investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX mission. She develops spacecraft and instruments to investigate hazardous asteroids and the evolution of small, airless worlds.
SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community’s diverse perspectives. Whether you’re an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion@spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. The perspectives shared in these opinion articles are solely those of the authors.
“}]]
Source: Read More