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\n Members of Terp Raptor attend the 2025 International Planetary Defense Conference.(Courtesy Terp Raptor)<\/p>\n
University of Maryland students are racing to build a spacecraft to study an asteroid that will pass closer to Earth than some of the satellites currently orbiting the plant.<\/p>\n
\n Members of Terp Raptor attend the 2025 International Planetary Defense Conference.(Courtesy Terp Raptor)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/terps-space-study-780x520.jpg\"\/)
\n Members of Terp Raptor attend the 2025 International Planetary Defense Conference.(Courtesy Terp Raptor)<\/p>\n
University of Maryland students are racing to build a spacecraft to study an asteroid that will pass closer to Earth than some of the satellites currently orbiting the planet. They just need help to funding it.<\/p>\n
The asteroid is called Apophis. It\u2019s about the size of the Eiffel Tower \u2014 and on April 13, 2029, it\u2019s expected to make an extraordinarily close pass by Earth. So close that people in Europe and Africa will be able to see it soaring through the sky. It won\u2019t land here, but if it did crash into Earth, it would have the impact of hundreds of nuclear bombs going off at once.<\/p>\n
Since that would be bad for humanity, a project called Terp Raptor (Terrapin Engineered Rideshare Probe for Rapid-response Asteroid Apophis Profiling, Tracking, Observing and Reconnaissance) has brought a group of undergrad and graduate students together to study Apophis, and how to prepare for an asteroid that might not miss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in a cosmic shooting gallery,\u201d said Adrienne Rudolph, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland and the student principal investigator for Terp Raptor. \u201cThere are asteroids and comets whirring around us all the time, but space is really big, so for something to get this close is incredibly rare. We want to give people the chance to, for lack of better phrasing, look the beast in the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Terp Raptor will do. Rudolph and other students are building a satellite that\u2019s about the size of a microwave. The plan is to launch it into space in 2028 so that it can fly by the asteroid ahead of time and beam information, including the sheer mass of the asteroid, back here before it gets too close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you understand the mass of an asteroid, you can calculate, if it were to impact the Earth, for example, what kind of energy would it have, what kind of destruction capability does it have,\u201d Rudolph said. \u201cAsteroid mass helps us to be able to learn about impacts, how to mitigate potential threats, if we need to. So if we see that there\u2019s an asteroid coming at us and we need to either deflect it or disrupt it or blow it up, we know how much spacecraft mass to hit it with, to knock it off its course.\u201d<\/p>\n
If it sounds like the prep work needed for when the 1990s movie Armageddon becomes more fact than fiction, you\u2019re right. But the project needs financial help lifting off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe estimate that we need around $1.2 million total in cost, which is pretty low for a space mission of this size, but it\u2019s still a lot,\u201d said Elena Wu, a freshman project manager with Terp Raptor. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re looking for funding from different sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of that funding is in place, and the team has secured lab space at NASA Goddard. A meeting with the president of the University of Maryland could also bring more good news.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is done at this point in terms of the design,\u201d said Tyler Autrey, the structure team lead who\u2019s in charge of the design and manufacturing of the actual satellite. \u201cWe just need the components.\u201d<\/p>\n