Scientists are urging NASA to act quickly to repurpose a pair of Janus probes to send them to the asteroid Apophis. It will make a close flyby of Earth in 2029.
Janus is a pair of identical probes designed to study asteroids. They were supposed to be sent to space in 2022 as a tail cargo along with the Psyche spacecraft. However, because the mission’s launch date was postponed by a year, the vehicles were left idle. Calculations showed that the vehicles would not be able to reach their original targets or any other near-Earth asteroids when launched in 2023. As a result, NASA sent them to a depot, where they remain to this day.
Last year, scientists proposed NASA to send Janus to the asteroid Apophis. It will fly at a distance of 32,000 km from our planet on April 13, 2029. Astronomers estimate that approaches with such large objects occur once every few thousand years, making the upcoming visit a unique event. The flyby is expected to affect Apophis. It may cause landslides and substance ejections.
NASA has one mission that will visit Apophis. It is about the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft. However, it would approach the asteroid after it had passed the Earth. Janus would be able to study it in its “original” form.
At last month’s Apophis T-4 Years Workshop, scientists repeated their recommendations to NASA and called Janus the best available option for studying Apophis. But unfortunately, it’s not so easy. NASA’s current budget (especially given the expected reduction in spending on science) does not permit to finance such a mission yet. In doing so, the organization admits that it has ruled out all alternative concepts for missions to Apophis in the study it conducted. Janus is indeed the most practical of the available options. However, until there is money in NASA’s budget for such a mission, or some other party is willing to fund it, the pair of probes will continue to remain in storage as they do.
It is worth noting that other space agencies also have plans to study Apophis. So, ESA is doing preliminary development of the RAMSES mission. And the Japanese aerospace agency is considering including the Apophis flyby in the program of the DESTINY+ mission, which targets the asteroid Phaethon. It was originally supposed to be launched this year, but due to a rocket change, it has been postponed to 2028. This makes it possible to include the Apophis flyby in the DESTINY+ flight plan.
According to Spacenews
