The spacecraft, Osiris-Rex, will be aiming for asteroid Bennu (BEHN’-oo). The spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid, study it and take a sample from it. Scientists want to study it because it could contain the building blocks of life.
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The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop an Atlas V rocket at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The US space agency counted down on Thursday to its first mission to collect dust from an asteroid, the kind of cosmic body that may have delivered life-giving materials to Earth billions of years ago. This is yet another example of NASA “turning science fiction into science fact”, Stofan noted.
The collection device, known as the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), should pick up about two ounces (60 grams) from the asteroid, but in tests so far it has generally picked up five times that amount.
Once the samples are safely stored in a capsule, OSIRIS-Rex will take off from the asteroid in March 2021.
Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, described the movement as a “gentle high-five”. They get just three shots at this, before the nitrogen gas runs out and the effort abandoned. Despite extensive observations of Bennu from ground and space telescopes, no one knows exactly what to expect there, and it could be hard if not impossible to anchor a spacecraft on the surface, Lauretta said. The spacecraft must orbit close enough and steady enough at an average speed of 63,000 miles per hour to collect the sample.
Among the 8,000 NASA launch guests was the schoolboy who came up with the asteroid’s name for a contest.
“He’s talked about it for weeks”, added Dr. Larry Puzio, his pediatrician dad.
Once it settles into orbit around Bennu in 2018, the Osiris-Rex probe will spend up to two more years mapping the asteroid’s surface and taking inventory of its chemical and mineral composition.
In 2020, OSIRIS-REx will circle down close to the surface and stick out a 10-foot-long robotic arm to touch the surface for several seconds at a time. And with the spacecraft named after the Egyptian god Osiris, Bennu was an obvious choice, he said.
Stardust’s comet-sampling mission mostly went off without a hitch.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor Justin Karl said seeing OSIRIS-REx launch reminds people that space is still about exploring – especially as SpaceX and ULA launch more frequently from Florida. “It is an extraordinary use of our intellect and treasure to elevate humankind, to help us know our place in the cosmos”.
Bennu swings by Earth every six years, and 150 years from now, could hit us.
However, the risk of a collision during this 24-year period is low – just 0.037 percent, or a one in 2,700 chance.
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Osiris-Rex will help scientists better understand the ever-changing paths of asteroids, and that could prove its biggest payoff.
