Mission Ramses: ESA will aim in 2029 Apophis, the asteroid that made the world tremble
Asteroids have the solar wind in the sails in space agencies with the recent missions DartOsiris-Rex, or Hera. Ramses may well be next on the list. The European Space Agency (ESA) actually is working on the question for several months and its target would be Apophis, the most famous of the geocroisters asteroids, that is to say cutting the terrestrial orbit.
Small historical reminder: Apophis is an asteroid about 320 m in diameter for a mass of 40 to 50 million tonnes, which became famous in 2007 when it was classified as the most dangerous of known geocroisors. At the time, it was calculated that the probability of an impact with the earth in 2029, then in 2036, each time around April 13, was around 1 in 45,000. With the uncertainties linked to this type of calculation, this made a significant potential danger.
In January 2007, it was even ranked in Rang 2, then 4 on Turin scalewhich classifies the danger of asteroids from 1 to 10. 4 was a threshold never reached before Apophis, enough to unleash the media frenzy.
Apophis will close the earth, 12 times closer than the Moon
We now know that Apophis will make a close passage on April 13, 2029 – on Friday for superstitious in need of strong emotions … – about 31,600 km from our blue planet. On a space scale, it is very, very little, about 12 times less than the distance that separates us from the moon. But for scientists, it is before the perfect occasion to go to study the star of cosmic rocks closely.
With Ramses, ESA is a little more committed to planetary defense
NASA is at a crossroads under Donald Trump, its budgets narrowing in sight. A priorithe US agency will not have the financial means to launch this mission within the timely time. This is a possibility for ESA to take a little more light: if NASA no longer wants to save the world, then Europe will take responsibility!
Indeed, a passage as close to the earth will modify the trajectory of Apophis, and potentially its external and internal structures because of the tidal forces of our planet, that is to say its “force” of gravity exerted on the asteroid. The objective is therefore to analyze the asteroid closely, just before and after its courteous visit to the land neighborhood. It will therefore be a most delicate operation, and it is the Spanish company Emyxis which was chosen for the development of the observer cubesat.
For the moment, the Ramses mission is only at the project stage, but it arouses a certain craze. We will know in November 2025 if ESA undertakes to make it a reality. The takeoff would then be planned for 2028.
