27 February 2008

Planetary Society awards $25,000 prize

From: http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13381-asteroidtracking-proposal-wins-25000-prize.html
the non-profit Planetary Society, based in Pasadena, California, US, has announced the winner of a competition to design a mission to track Apophis and determine whether it poses a threat to Earth. The Planetary Society received 37 mission proposals from 20 countries. The winner was a proposal by SpaceWorks Engineering Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia, US. Dubbed "Foresight", the mission would put a small spacecraft in orbit around Apophis, where it would send pictures and data about the asteroid back to Earth. Its designers say if they got funding, they could launch the mission as early as 2012 and arrive at the asteroid in 2013.

No comments: