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Projects: Apophis Mission Design Competition

The Review Panel

The Planetary Society conducted a competition in 2007 and 2008 to design a mission to rendezvous with and "tag" a near-Earth asteroid such as Apophis. In this competition, Apophis, currently with a one in a few thousand probability of striking Earth in 2036, was treated as an example to facilitate mission design. The purpose of the competition was to gather a diverse and large suite of entries that could be a creative and useful starting point for a potential space agency project to tag any asteroid that may be coming dangerously close to Earth. The Planetary Society awarded $40,000 in prize money among three winners of the open competion, and split an additional $10,000 among four notable student entries.

The Planetary Society is grateful to its expert review panelists who reviewed proposals and made prize recommendations:

  • Mark Adler, Chief Mission Concept Architect, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  • Ian Carnelli, ESA General Studies Programme

  • Daniel D. Mazanek, Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center

  • Naomi Murdoch, Advanced Concepts Team, European Space Agency

  • Stefano Santandrea, System Engineer, European Space Agency, D-TEC In-Orbit Technology Demonstration Projects Office

  • Simon "Pete" Worden, Director, NASA Ames Research Center

Internal Planetary Society reviewers provided pre-screening of proposals for meeting of basic requirements:

  • Bruce Betts, Director of Projects

  • Emily Lakdawalla, Science and Technology Coordinator

  • Darin Ragozzine, Graduate Student Intern