[P-PS09] Asteroid and Comet Missions for Science and Planetary Defense

Fri. May 29, 2026 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM 302 (International Conference Hall, Makuhari Messe)

Chairperson:Yoshikawa Makoto(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)

It is an exciting time for the up-close study of small bodies (asteroids and comets) using instruments on numerous international flyby, orbital rendezvous, and sample return spacecraft missions. Some current and planned missions are designed to address fundamental questions in planetary science, including early solar system history, planetary formation, and the role of meteorites in understanding small body compositions. And some of these missions are designed to directly address Planetary Defense, assessing the potential hazards that a subset of the small bodies population might pose to our planet and the methods by which potentially catastrophic impacts could be mitigated. In this session we plan to feature the latest results from recent successful small bodies mission, as well as the goals and plans for additional future approved and proposed small bodies missions, including those focusing on the upcoming 2029 very close approach of the asteroid Apophis to the Earth. The global implications of small bodies science and Planetary Defense studies makes international collaboration essential for this topic, and therefor in this session we hope to showcase representative examples of mission results and plans from space agencies and organizations around the world.

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9:00 AM - 9:15 AM

[PPS09-01] Overview and Development Status of the Near-Earth Asteroid Mission RAMSES

*Hiroyuki Toyota¹, Tatsuaki Okada¹, Yuri Shimaki¹, Makoto Yoshikawa¹, Masaki Sato¹, Yoshiyuki Murakami¹, Shusaku Kanaya¹, Atsushi Wada¹, Hiroshi Mitsui¹, Hirohide Shiratori¹, Yusuke Shintani², Naoyuki Kaneko², Takayuki Ose³, Masaki Date³ (1. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 2. NEC Corporation, 3. NEC Space Technologies, Ltd.)

9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

[PPS09-02] Science and Observation Plan of Thermal Imaging of Asteroids for the Hera and RAMSES mission

*Tatsuaki Okada^1,2, Satoshi Tanaka^1,2, Naoya Sakatani¹, Yuri Shimaki¹, Takehiko Arai³, Hiroki Senshu⁴, Hirohide Demura⁵, Tomohiko Sekiguchi⁶, Toru Kouyama⁷, Masanori Kanamaru⁵, Takuya Ishizaki^2,1, Soichiro Furukawa^1,2, Ramon Viardell⁵, Ozgur Karatekin⁸, Joris Blommaert⁹, Tim Titus¹⁰ (1. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 2. University of Tokyo, 3. Maebashi Institute of Technology, 4. Chiba Institute of Technology, 5. University of Aizu, 6. Hokkaido University of Education, 7. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 8. Royal Observatory of Belgium, 9. Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 10. United States Geological Survey)

9:30 AM - 9:45 AM

[PPS09-03] DESTINY+ Overview and Development Status

*Hiroshi Imamura¹, Tomoko Arai², Hiroyuki Toyota¹, Takeshi Takashima¹ (1. JAXA, 2. CIT PERC)

9:45 AM - 10:00 AM

[PPS09-04] Apophis Pathfinder: A Rapid Response Flyby Mission of (99942) Apophis using the ASU/Milo Space Science Institute’s Consortium Model

*James F Bell¹, Daniel J Scheeres², Edward B Bierhaus³, David Thomas¹, Lon Levin¹ (1. Arizona State University, 2. University of Colorado, 3. Lockheed Martin)

10:00 AM - 10:15 AM

[PPS09-05] ApophisExL Mission: A Commercial MaaS Pathfinder for Science and Planetary Defense at Asteroid (99942) Apophis

★Invited Papers

*Keiko Nakamura-Messenger¹ (1. Exploration Laboratories)

10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

[PPS09-06] Project Apophis: the world’s first Academic-Commercial collaboration asteroid mission

*Tomoko Arai¹, Tetsuro Harada¹, Ko Ishibashi¹, Manabu Yamada¹, Hiroki Senshu¹, Masanori Kobayashi¹, Ryo Ishimaru¹, Daisuke Nakayama^3,2, Tomonori Sekiguchi², Yosuke Sadasue², Yusaku Washio², Ryo Mizuochi², Daiki Usami², Haruki Ito², Anju Sasaki², Schulz Victor Hugo³, Corodova-Alarcon Jose Rodrigo³, Ryuichi Ueda², Mengu Cho^2,3 (1. Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, 2. Chiba Institute of Technology, 3. Kyushu Institute of Technology)

Session information