OSIRIS-APEX, follow-on mission to Apophis Options

[nprev]

After today's successful Bennu sample delivery, OSIRIS is off on a new adventure with a new name.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/09/2...or-new-mission/

[Explorer1]

An update last week regarding the first close approach to the sun. There's an animation of the trajectory; it looks like in just a few months (February 2024) the spacecraft will be in the vicinity of Apophis already (8 seconds in), though the inclination difference is of course invisible. Checking with Eyes on the Solar System shows a large separation even at what I visually see as closest approach around February 23-25 or so. I wonder if the OCAMS would be able to detect it anyway...

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jasedm]

Really excited about this mission - it's a triumph of re-purposing a perfectly functional spacecraft for other duties.

As I understand it, there are some significant uncertainties as to exactly where Apophis may be after closest approach to Earth, I guess there's enough fuel on board to account for these?