Roscosmos announced the study of the satellite of Jupiter and the monitoring of the asteroid
“Roscosmos” shared its grandiose plans with journalists. Representatives of this organization reported that by the year 2022 they were going to launch a spacecraft into relatively deep space, namely to Jupiter. More precisely, not to Jupiter himself, but to one of such so-called Galilean satellites, Ganymede. The head of Roskosmos told that the spacecraft would descend to the surface of the satellite of Jupiter, and another space probe would install a radio beacon on the asteroid Apophis. It is this asteroid that has an increased likelihood of a threat to the Earth, and therefore Roscosmos is going to monitor its condition. Initially, Roskosmos announced such an ambitious project in the summer at MAKS, but now Vladimir Popovkin has decided to talk about the details of the project.
The head of the Russian space agency reports that the flight should begin precisely in 2022, as part of the Laplace-P project. Popovkin, talking about the purpose of the expedition of the spacecraft to Ganymede, said that the goal - the search for life on this space object. In addition, Popovkin announced that experts from Europe had already listened to the project, and therefore "Laplace P" could become an international space project to study the solar system.
When flying to Jupiter’s satellite, many problems will have to be solved, including overcoming the gravitational force of the largest planet of the solar system, as well as its magnetic field, which can disable even the best electronics. However, Vladimir Popovki is full of determination and says that 2022 will solve such problems, and the device will start fulfilling its mission.
The head of Roscosmos also reported that between the 2020 and 2022 years, another ambitious project is planned to launch the spacecraft to the Apophis asteroid, which, according to scientists, could reach a dangerously close distance to Earth. Popovkin said that a project was being developed, the ultimate goal of which would be the establishment of a beacon capable of transmitting information to Earth at Apophis. The head of the agency said that mineral resources from the asteroid are not interesting to Roscosmos, and therefore they will not be delivered to Earth.
Earlier, RAS experts reported: it is indeed planned to send a spacecraft to Apophis, which will monitor the asteroid's orbit, as well as to determine the probability of its collision with the planet Earth. This program is part of a large solar system study program planned for the entire period up to the 2025 year.
Today, scientists have information that the asteroid Apophis, whose linear dimensions are about 300 km, in the 2029 year can approach the Earth only 36 thousands of kilometers. If we take into account that geostationary satellites are moving at such a distance from the planet, then the distance really looks small. But in the 2036 year, Apophis could well collide with the Earth if its trajectory remains unchanged.
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