Foresight: A Radio Beacon Mission to Asteroid Apophis

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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 Engineering, 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: Tech
Uploaded: May 7th, 2008 @ 12:26 am
Author: SpaceWorksEng

Length: 03:47
Rating: Whole StarWhole StarWhole StarWhole StarHalf Star
Views: 923

Tags: apophis asteroid defense foresight planetary sei space spaceworks works

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