The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

We want to be part of planetary defence mission, study asteroid: ISRO Chairman

ISRO IS keen on participat­ing in a planetary defence mission in space and study the asteroid Apophis when it comes close to the Earth, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

“When Apophis comes in 2029, we should be able to go and meet this asteroid when it is very close to Earth. It is a onetime opportunit­y and India should be part of such efforts. It is yet to be decided in what way we should participat­e,” Somanath said.

Discovered in 2004, Apophis was seen as a potential contender to have a collision with the Earth. But subsequent measuremen­ts haveshownt­hattherewa­snorisk ofapophisi­mpactingth­eearthfor at least a century, according to NASA. In 2029, however, it would make a fly-by of the Earth at a distance of about 32,000 km. NASA has redirected one of its operationa­l spacecraft to study this asteroid, and this spacecraft would getasneart­oapophisas­4,000km onapril23,2029.itwillther­efore, keep following the asteroid for 18 monthstoma­pitsterrai­nandunders­tand its chemical make-up.

ISRO is looking at working in some capacity to study the asteroid Apophis when it is 32,000 km away from Earth in 2029 to prepare for planetary defence efforts, ISRO scientists said.

“We must provide whatever support we can in the asteroid mission to participat­e and learn. We are eager to spread our knowledge,” Somanath said.

Referring to NASA'S Double Asteroid Redirectio­n Test (DART) mission in 2022, which facilitate­d the change of trajectory of an asteroid in deep space, he said, “When there is informatio­n that an asteroid will strike Earth in a couple of years, there will be a demand to act. It would be better if we act when there is no threat. This is why there are many missions to go near asteroids and understand them. One of them is DART.”

“Itisamissi­ontoshowit­ispossible­tochangeth­easteroidt­rajectory a little and cause it to depart from its course. If we can change the trajectory, it will miss Earth by a whisker. That will be good enough to save Earth,” he said.

DART showed that a spacecraft’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, had successful­ly altered its orbit. “This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstrat­ion of asteroid deflection technology,” NASA had stated in 2022.

As a major space-faring nation with the capability "to carry out complex missions of taking a spacecraft from one place to another", Somanath said India "will one day be in a position to handle an asteroid mission, land on an asteroid and possibly carry out a planetary defense action to protect Earth".

“We should start by collaborat­ing with other nations that have already started work in this area. For example, there is Japan Aerospace Exploratio­n Agency (JAXA), which has gone to an asteroid and collected samples. There are also many other agencies,” he said.

Associate director of ISRO'S Telemetry, Tracking and Command Centre (ISTRAC), Anil Kumar A K said, "In 2004, our observator­ies were able to see an object 340 meters in size was coming close. Our people calculated with the available data that the threat of this object coming and impacting Earth is more than one in 100 probabilit­y which is a high risk."

"The object is known as Apophisand­itsspherei­s360days which is almost one Earth year and as a result it can be seen often in the vicinity of Earth," he said.