No surprise: ESA’s Ministerial Council approved (officially…) the RAMSES mission. While meeting this week (26-27 Nov… US holiday), the European Space Agency’s Council of Ministers officiated Agency matters. RAMSES is now on track to rendezvous with Apophis in ~2029, partly… Read More »RAMSES Has Rubber Stamp
A bit light for this blog, but… ESA has posted an explainer video for the RAMSES mission: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/10/Ramses_ESA_s_mission_to_rendezvous_with_asteroid_ApophisRamses: ESA’s mission to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis 13/10/2025 This week marks three and a half years until the Apophis flyby of Earth;… Read More »See RAMSES Teaser
The Europlanet-AAS Division for Planetary Science meeting for Friday, Sep. 12 (see also Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu): https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu/ https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/meetingprogramme MITM10Laboratory experiments in support of ground observations and space missions (sample return, analogs, analytical workflow etc.) Low-temperature reflectance spectra of meteorites:… Read More »2025 Joint EPSC-DPS Meeting, V
It’s an odd-numbered year. Therefore, the American Astronomical Society’s meeting of their Division for Planetary Sciences will be a joint meeting (in Helsinki, FI) with the Europlanet Science Congress, on September 8-12: https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu/ Of course, next year will be two… Read More »2025 Joint EPSC-DPS Meeting, I
See also: Day 1 The 33rd meeting of the Small Bodies Assessment Group continues. This is a somewhat shorter SBAG meeting than usual. Given the upheaval of January/February, and the budget/regulatory risk, funding could not be confidently assigned for Early… Read More »Summer 2025 SBAG Meeting, Day 2
…see Day 1 The last post was the first day of a big, multi-day conference: lots of pleasantries and generalities. Here now we get into some real meat of the matter. Session 1: Hypothetical Threat Exercise Technical SessionThe international… Read More »2025 Planetary Defense Conference, Day 2
That Robin Andrews is a busy writer: April 16, 2025 Robin George Andrews www.newscientist.com/article/2476805-the-race-to-visit-the-asteroid-making-the-closest-pass-by-earth/ Asteroid (99942) Apophis was, a generation ago, calculated to have a slight chance of hitting Earth, in 2029. At under a kilometer in size, it would… Read More »Apophis Mission Grist
The (formerly threatening) asteroid Apophis will make its (safe) pass by the Earth on April 13, 2029. (No coincidence, the UN has also declared 2029 to be the Year of Planetary Defense.) That means four years to prepare scientific observations,… Read More »Apophis T-4 Years Meeting
…we continue with Day 3 (see also Days 1 and 2): Program (https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/technical_program/#20250310) Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Space Weathering https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/technical_program/?session_no=403Effect of Oxygen Ion Irradiation on the Visible, Infrared, and Raman Spectra of Phobos Candidate Materials: Implications on the Space Weathering… Read More »56th LPSC (2025): Wed, Day 3
No, I did not fly to Japan. Here’s the agenda for the 2025 (and inaugural) JAXA planetary defense meeting, in conjunction with the Japan Spaceguard Association: https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/researchers/info/files/2024PDSymp_program.pdf Thursday, February 27th: International session(invited) Apophis 2029: Once-per-Millennium Knowledge Opportunity for the Science… Read More »FY2024 Planetary Defense (Spaceguard) Symposium