Planetary Environmentaland Astrobiological Research Laboratory

Stas Barabash is a professor of experimental space plasmaphysics at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics(IRF),Kiruna,Sweden,the former IRF Director.His prime scientificinterest is plasma interactions with planetary bodies,moons,and asteroids.Prof.Barabash is Principal or Co-PrincipalInvestigator on 12 missions and Co-Investigator on 15missions and instruments.His current major projects includethe Particle Environment Package(PEP)on ESA’s JUICEmission to Jupiter,ion and energetic neutral atominstruments on ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury,and
an instrument for ESA's RAMSES mission to asteroid Apophis.Prof.Barabash is the Member ofthe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,a Full Member of the International Academy ofAstronautics,and a recipient of the COSPAR International Cooperation Award (2018).
ABSTRACT：The close approach of asteroid Apophis on 13 April 2029 offers a unique opportunity for scientificinvestigation of how small-scale,airless bodies interact with planetary magnetospheres.Apophis,a~400-meter near-Earth asteroid,will pass within 31,600 km of Earth’s surface on a retrogradetrajectory,traversing the inner magnetosphere and encountering the outer radiation belt,ring current,and the outer regions of the plasmasphere.This event provides a natural laboratory to studyinteractions between the asteroid surface and a wide range of particle populations,from the cold,dense plasma of the plasmasphere to high-energy penetrating particles of the radiation belts.Theseinteractions can release ions and neutral particles from the outermost layers of the asteroid surface,enabling the determination of surface composition.They also define the conditions and dynamics oflevitating dust,which may be released as a result of surface deformation caused by strong tidal forcesat closest approach.Such deformation may additionally release volatiles accumulated within theasteroid material,leading to changes in the near-asteroid environment.Understanding the spaceenvironment around an asteroid and its evolution within a planetary magnetosphere is important forplanetary science,space plasma physics,and planetary defense.
The European Space Agency is developing the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety(RAMSES).RAMSES will accompany Apophis approaching its surface down to 1 km for approximately six weeksbefore closest approach and three months after.RAMSES will carry,for the first time,the RAMSESPlasma Spectrometer(RPS),developed in collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for SolarSystem Research in Göttingen,Germany(Principal Investigator:Dr.Norbert Krupp),and the SwedishInstitute of Space Physics.In this talk,we provide an overview of asteroid-solar wind interactions,introduce asteroid Apophis and its Earth flyby from a space plasma perspective,and briefly describethe RAMSES mission and the RPS instrument.