Ramses, or Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, is a proposed

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) mission to a

near-Earth asteroid A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit aro ...

99942 Apophis 99942 Apophis ( provisional designation ) is a near-Earth asteroid and a potentially hazardous object, 450 metres (1,480 ft) by 170 metres (560 ft) in size, that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 when initial observatio ...

. If approved, it is expected to be launched in April 2028 and to arrive at Apophis in February 2029 before its closest approach to Earth. It will conduct multiple measurements of the asteroid's properties, to study possible response in case such an asteroid would be on a collision course with Earth. Ramses mission will leverage much of the technology developed for the ''Hera'' mission. At the asteroid, Ramses will deploy two smaller

CubeSats A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

. The decision whether to approve the mission is expected to take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council Meeting in November 2025.

CubeSats

The first selected CubeSat will be built by

Tyvak Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems was an American company that designed and built satellites. It started as a designer, builder and provider of nanosatellite and CubeSat space vehicle products and services for government and commercial customers. T ...

International, a company that developed the ''Milani'' CubeSat for the ''Hera'' mission. The small spacecraft will combine the dust analyser of ''Milani'' with the low-frequency radar of ''Juventas'', another CubeSat of ''Hera''. The dust analyser will study material released from the surface of Apophis and the radar will investigate the asteroid's internal structure. The second CubeSat, being developed by a consortium led by Emxys (Spain), will attempt landing on Apophis. Its main task will be to provide high resolution imagery of the asteroid's surface from a distance of just a few kilometres. If the landing is successful, the CubeSat will also measure the asteroid's seismic activity during its exceptionally close flyby of Earth. Emxys previously contributed to the GRASS gravimeter on ''Hera'''s ''Juventas'' CubeSat.

Timeline

* In July 2024, ESA’s Space Safety programme has received permission to begin preparatory work for Ramses. The project has been awarded 1.5 million euros for the preparations. * In October 2024, ESA signed a contract with OHB Italia SpA for preliminary work on the mission and unveiled the official mission patch. A funding decision is expected to be made in late 2025 at the ESA Ministerial Council. * In March 2025, ESA has selected the first of two

to fly onboard Ramses. At that time, the mission team was considering whether the second CubeSat could be a lander that would touch down on Apophis. * In April 2025, ESA has selected the Spanish company Emxys to build the second CubeSat, intended to land on Apophis, and GomSpace (Denmark) to provide system engineering support for the lander cubesat project.GomSpace joins ESA's RAMSES mission to enhance planetary defense through advanced cubesat technology.

References

European Space Agency space probes Proposed spacecraft Missions to asteroids {{spacecraft-stub

CubeSats

Timeline

See also

References