K+ Mission 1 -> 99942 Apophis

0:00 /1:15 1× Our first mission is going to asteroid Apophis. Our entire approach to mission design is focused on flexibility, making sure that we can adjust and optimize if a better target comes along or if anything shifts and changes with the launch of our spacecraft. We

0:00 /0:10 1× Everything we encounter in the solar system is moving, both on its path around the sun as well as on some sort of spin around one or more axis. That rotation rate is one of the bigger unknowns for any asteroid we target, in part

0:00 /0:07 1× With all of the parts and components for our spacecraft ordered and on their way, we are currently going through rapid iterations of our design with a series of full scale builds. These engineering models help identify issues and challenges early, as well as test

0:00 /0:07 1× With everyone at the bottom of this gravity well called Earth, getting anything into space requires a massive amount of effort and energy. That said, we lucked out! Earth sits in what you might call a Goldilocks gravity well: deep enough to hold onto an

0:00 /1:13 1× We are in full build&test mode at the moment, across all of the components on our spacecraft. Design->Build->Test->Break->Redesign This last quarter was a bit of a disappointment for lunar activity (ispace' Hakuta-R mission

0:00 /0:04 1× NASA's Lucy spacecraft is on a 12-year journey in which it will perform flyby encounters with at least 2 main belt and 6 Jupiter trojan asteroids. In November of 2023, one of its targets called 152830 Dinkinesh (we like its nickname Dinky