Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: EMXYS

The first CubeSat designed to operate on the surface of an asteroid has been contracted by the European Space Agency.

The Spanish company EMXYS is providing Don Quijote, a shoebox-sized spacecraft that will be deployed onto the Apophis asteroid by ESA’s Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) mission before the asteroid flies by Earth on April 13, 2029.

Ramses’s Don Quijote CubeSat, led by Emxys, will be deployed from the main spacecraft just a few kilometers from Apophis.

Image credit: EMXYS

Trio of instruments

The CubeSat will carry a trio of instruments.

• The Gravimeter for Small Solar System Objects (GRASS) is being developed by the Royal Observatory of Belgium with EMXYS to measure the asteroid’s miniscule gravity field.
• The MARIE (Magnetosphere-induced Apophis Response Investigation Experiment), is being provided through the German Space Science Program and manufactured by Technische Universität Braunschweig, to measure if the asteroid has a magnetic field – and how it might change when interacting with Earth’s own magnetic field and gravity.
• The Seismic Instrument for Asteroids (SIA) seismometer comes from French aerospace center ISAE-SUPAERO, designed to perform the first seismic measurements on an asteroid.

Artist’s impression of ESA’s proposed Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses).

Question mark

“It will come down quite slowly, but in the ultra-low gravity of Apophis some bouncing along the surface is possible,” said Francesca Ingiosi, overseeing Ramses’ CubeSat work. “The CubeSat is therefore designed to operate from any orientation, although the precise nature of the surface remains a question mark,” he added in an ESA statement.

“There is even a small possibility that Don Quijote sinks into the ground,” Ingiosi noted, “which would not be good!”