The Planetary Society Apophis Mission Design Competition

1. The Planetary SocietyApophis Mission Design Competition

2. Apophis Mission Design Competition • Planetary Society competition to design a mission to “tag” the asteroid Apophis to better determine its orbit and threat to Earth. • Apophis is an example case to facilitate mission design • $50,000 in prizes • Privately funded by Dan Geraci and members of The Planetary Society

3. Apophis • 300 meter wide asteroid • Would cause regional devastation if it impacted Earth • For this or any other NEO, we need precise orbit to determine whether it is a danger, and whether to mount deflection mission

4. Apophis 2029 Apophis will be closer to Earth than geostationary communications satellites, and visible to the unaided eye If it hits a few hundred meter wide “keyhole,” it will impact Earth in 2036

5. Some Competition Key Elements • Open to all, internationally, and from students to professionals • Restrictions on use of government money in preparing proposals • Designed mission must provide accurate enough orbit to facilitate a decision on deflection mission by 2017 • Full mission design required • Judging focus on tagging portion • Any method can be proposed, though all must be justified

6. Cooperating Organizations • European Space Agency (ESA) • NASA • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) • Association of Space Explorers (ASE) • Universities Space Research Association (USRA)

7. Initial Advisory Committee • Daniel Durda, Southwest Research Institute, Planetary Scientist • Louis Friedman, The Planetary Society, Executive Director • Lewis Peach, USRA, Chief Engineer • Russell “Rusty” Schweickart, Apollo astronaut and ASE NEO Committee Chairman • Gen. Simon “Pete” Worden, Director, Ames Research Center

8. Review Panel • Mark Adler, Chief Mission Concept Architect, Jet Propulsion Laboratory • Ian Carnelli, ESA General Studies Programme • Daniel D. Mazanek, Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center • Naomi Murdoch, Advanced Concepts Team, European Space Agency • Stefano Santandrea, System Engineer, European Space Agency, D-TEC In-Orbit Technology Demonstration Projects Office • Simon "Pete" Worden, Director, NASA Ames Research Center • Planetary Society screening panel: Bruce Betts, Emily Lakdawalla, Darin Ragozzine

9. Winners: Open Competition • 1st Prize - $25,000 - Foresight • PI: Mark G. Schaffer • SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia, USA • A.C. Charania, John R. Olds, Ben Stahl, Nicholas Boechler, Dominic DePasquale • SpaceDev, Inc., Poway, California, USA • Jesse Koenig

10. Winners (cont) • 2nd Prize - $10,000 - A-Track • PI: Juan L. Cano • Deimos Space S.L., Madrid, Spain • EADS Astrium, Friedrichshafen, Germany; • University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany • Universitá di Pisa, Pisa, Italy • 3rd Prize - $5,000 - APEX • PI: Paolo D'Arrigo • EADS Astrium Ltd, UK • EADS Astrium SAS, France • IASF-Roma, INAF, Rome, Italy • Open University, UK • Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung, Germany • Royal Observatory of Belgium, Belgium • Telespazio, Italy

11. Winners: Student Category • 1st Prize Student - $5,000 • Georgia Institute of Technology • PI: Jonathan Sharma • Team: Jarret Lafleur, Kreston Barron, Jonathan Townley, Nilesh Shah, Jillian Apa • Faculty advisors: Robert Braun and Joseph Saleh

12. Winners: Student Category • 2nd Prize Student (Tie) - $2000 each • Monash University, Clayton Campus, Australia • Dilani Kahawala and Hemant Chaurasia • University of Michigan • Jeremy Hollander et al. • Honorable Mention: Most Innovative Student Proposal - $1000 • Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology • Peter Weiss and Winnie Leung

13. http://planetary.org/apophis bruce.betts@planetary.org

14. The Planetary SocietyApophis Mission Design Competition