Apophis

Apophis - Chapter 1

Day 12

In 2017, SpaceX began live-streaming rocket launches. The 12-minute streams were like tiny space adventure movies and you felt like you were part of the mission. Finally, we were moving full speed ahead to the future we had been promised as kids and that space travel for humans beyond the moon was actually going to happen. Of course, the first SpaceX missions where to put satellites into space and to resupply the ISS, but human transport was what we all waited for.

In 2025, a Starship carrying 50 people landed on Mars. The voyage took 90 days. This first group of martian explorers was comprised of scientists, engineers, and chemists. The world was in awe. What an incredible feat of human ingenuity and courage. It was the only thing that people talked about. Even former flat-earthers were excited! The world had turned its attention away from the petty issues of the day and we were all united in this great space adventure.

Elon told us that it would take at least 40 years to colonize Mars with 1,000,000 humans. That seemed very fast at the time.

We know now it was not near fast enough.

On January 1, 2036, The President announced that a near-Earth asteroid, called Apophis, would collide with our planet. We had all heard of Apophis. We had been told 20 years earlier than it would pass near earth, but that the odds of it striking us were 1:1,000,000. For 19 years we thought we were safe. We knew nothing. Until they let us know everything.

*Apophis was not 1/2 KM wide, as we were told. It was much, much larger.

*In 2004 NASA learned that Apophis was going to pass through the gravitational keyhole and strike earth 32 years later.

*In 2005, SpaceX started working on plans with NASA to send as many humans to Mars as possible before Apophis' impact.

*On April 13, 2036, a 96 km-wide asteroid whose name means "The Un-Creator", will collide with earth. 

My name is Travis. My family was not chosen for Martian colonization. I live in a suburb of Kansas City, MO, USA, where the asteroid will most directly hit. I will continue this journal until the end of my time on Earth. Today is April 1, 2036.