A California company is designing a spacecraft that's set to launch in April 2028 with a mission to intercept an asteroid as it passes close to Earth. The spacecraft being built by Long Beach-based ExLabs will take a year to reach the asteroid Apophis, aiming for contact on April 13, 2029. Once there, it will study the asteroid's composition and origin. The mission is funded by grants and contracts from agencies like NASA and the U.S. Space Force. ExLabs hopes this will pave the way for capturing and mining asteroids, potentially revolutionizing resource acquisition and reducing the need for Earth-based mining.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft will soon swoop past a small asteroid. It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. Its ultimate destination is the unexplored swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter. NASA considers Sunday's flyby a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter. Looking on from Mission Control in Colorado will be paleontologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the Lucy fossil 50 years ago. The asteroid is named for him.
New research shows that when an asteroid slammed into the moon billions of years ago, it carved out a pair of grand canyons on the far side. That's good news for NASA, which is looking to land astronauts at the south pole on the near, Earth-facing side later this decade. Because the debris went elsewhere, the moon's south pole contains older rocks that could be collected by moonwalkers. The incoming object created an impact basin and sent streams of rocks hurtling like missiles. Within minutes, two canyons comparable in size to Arizona's Grand Canyon were formed.
A spacecraft has blasted off to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash. The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away from Florida on Monday on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA in 2022. It's the second part of a planetary defense test that could one day help save Earth. Launched by SpaceX, Hera will attempt to go into orbit around the asteroid and its larger companion in 2026. Scientists are eager to examine the impact's aftermath up close. They want to know exactly how effective NASA's impact was and what changes might be needed to safeguard Earth in the future.
