Apophis is a Near-Earth Asteroid that will pass between Earth and the geostationary satellite belt in April 2029.
The asteroid's orbit cannot be determined to sufficient fidelity via ground-based observations whether, during this close encounter, it will go through one of the areas in space called keyholes where a perturbation by Earth's gravity would cause the asteroid to impact Earth on a subsequent return, most likely in 2036.
The Foresight spacecraft designed by SEI and SpaceDev would travel to Apophis and perform proximity observations that would significantly refine the orbit estimate, allowing an informed decision as to whether a space mission should be planned to deflect the asteroid prior to the 2029 Earth-pass; deflection would be drastically more difficult to achieve after passage through a keyhole.
"SpaceDev is honored by this award, and we are proud of the design produced by our collaboration with SEI," said Mark N. Sirangelo, SpaceDev's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"We thank The Planetary Society, NASA and ESA for sponsoring the competition, which we expect to be influential in advancing the objectives of Near Earth Object threat mitigation. We believe that low-cost space missions will play a fundamental role in this critical work, and we look forward to contributing our capabilities to such efforts."