The START mission: Probing the 2029 Apophis Flyby via a Low-Cost Geocentric SmallSat

@misc{wu2026start,
  title = {{The START mission: Probing the 2029 Apophis Flyby via a Low-Cost Geocentric SmallSat}},
  author = {Yixuan Wu and Yunda Li and Bowen Zheng and Jingxiang Xu and Yuhang Yu and Wang Sun and Haozhe Du and Siyuan Wu and Zhixuan Zhao and Rongchenzhong Hu and Jiantao Liu and Haoyu Liu and Yunchong Shen and Yutong Sun and Tianchen Wang and Jing Yu and Zijie Tang and Yihong Wu and Yifei Jiao and Wen-Yue Dai and Jialong Song and Nan Zhang and Zhaokui Wang and Tianshu Wang and Junfeng Li and Hexi Baoyin and Bin Cheng},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.22904},
  eprint = {2610.22904},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22904},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The START mission: Probing the 2029 Apophis Flyby via a Low-Cost Geocentric SmallSat
AU  - Yixuan Wu
AU  - Yunda Li
AU  - Bowen Zheng
AU  - Jingxiang Xu
AU  - Yuhang Yu
AU  - Wang Sun
AU  - Haozhe Du
AU  - Siyuan Wu
AU  - Zhixuan Zhao
AU  - Rongchenzhong Hu
AU  - Jiantao Liu
AU  - Haoyu Liu
AU  - Yunchong Shen
AU  - Yutong Sun
AU  - Tianchen Wang
AU  - Jing Yu
AU  - Zijie Tang
AU  - Yihong Wu
AU  - Yifei Jiao
AU  - Wen-Yue Dai
AU  - Jialong Song
AU  - Nan Zhang
AU  - Zhaokui Wang
AU  - Tianshu Wang
AU  - Junfeng Li
AU  - Hexi Baoyin
AU  - Bin Cheng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.22904
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22904
AB  - The Student-led Threatening Asteroid Reconnaissance of Tsinghua (START) marks the inaugural mission of the Tianxing Program, a deep-space exploration initiative led by students at Tsinghua University. Conceived as a low-cost, rapid-response small-satellite mission, START will investigate the near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis during its close approach to Earth in April 2029, when significant terrestrial tidal forces will offer a rare opportunity to observe the physical and dynamical response of a rubble-pile asteroid in real time. The 300 kg spacecraft is scheduled for rideshare launch into low Earth orbit in early 2028 and will then use solar electric propulsion to transfer to a circular mission orbit with a semimajor axis of approximately 38,000 km and an inclination of 55 degrees. START will execute a high-speed flyby of Apophis from a closest distance of 7 km at the asteroid's closest approach to Earth, to capture its tidal response. The payload suite consists of a high-resolution narrow-field camera, a wide-field navigation camera, and three near-infrared multispectral imagers. By acquiring centimeter-scale imagery and meter-scale reflectance spectra, the mission will characterize the asteroid's surface morphology and composition and monitor immediate tidally induced surface modifications. Ultimately, START will provide geometrically complementary, high-cadence datasets to international flagship missions to Apophis, demonstrating a highly scalable and cost-effective architecture for future planetary defense and small-body exploration.
ER  -