He shared his ambitious plans with the journalists of Roscosmos. Representatives of this organization announced that by 2022 they are going to launch a spacecraft into relatively deep space, namely to Jupiter. More precisely, not to Jupiter itself, but to one of the so-called Galilean satellites - Ganymede. The head of Roscosmos said that the spacecraft will descend to the surface of the satellite of Jupiter, and another space probe will 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, Roscosmos announced such an ambitious project back in the summer at MAKS, but now Vladimir Popovkin decided to talk about the details of the project.
The head of the Russian space agency reports that the flight should begin in 2022 as part of the Laplace-P project. Popovkin, talking about the purpose of the spacecraft expedition to Ganymede, declares that the goal is the search for life on this space object. In addition, Popovkin announced that specialists from Europe had already listened to the project, and therefore Laplace-P could become an international space project for the study of the solar system.
When flying to the satellite of Jupiter, you will have to solve many problems, including overcoming the gravity of the largest planet in the solar system, as well as its magnetic field, which can disable even the best electronics. However, Vladimir Popovka is full of decisiveness and says that by 2022 such problems will be solved, and the apparatus will begin to fulfill its mission.
The head of Roscosmos also announced that in the interval between 2020 and 2022, another ambitious project is planned to launch a spacecraft to the asteroid Apophis, which, according to scientists, can come dangerously close to Earth. Popovkin said that a project is being developed, the ultimate goal of which should be that a radio beacon capable of transmitting information to Earth will be installed on Apophis. The head of the agency said that minerals from the asteroid Roskosmos are not interested in, and therefore they will not be delivered to Earth.
Earlier, RAS specialists reported: it is really planned to send a spacecraft to Apophis, which will monitor the asteroid's orbit, as well as to determine the likelihood of its collision with planet Earth. Such a program is part of a larger program for the study of the solar system, planned for the entire period until 2025.
Today, scientists have information that the asteroid Apophis, whose linear dimensions are about 300 km, in 2029 can approach the Earth by only 36 thousand 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 2036, Apophis may well collide with the Earth, if the trajectory of its movement remains unchanged.
