“We were able to deliver OSIRIS-REx on time and under budget to the launch site, and will soon do something that no other NASA spacecraft has done – bring back a sample from an asteroid”. “I fully expect Bennu will be visited again after OSIRIS-REx”, says Lauretta. “We’re going to be answering some of the most fundamental questions that NASA works on”, said Dr. Ellen Stofan, NASA’s chief scientist.
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The roundish rock – about 1,600ft across and taller than the Empire State Building – is believed to harbour carbon dating back 4.5 billion years, to the beginning of our solar system.
NASA hopes to collect between 60g and 2kg of material, which should return to Earth in 2023. But aside from sample collection, NASA is also depending on OSIRIS-REx to improve prediction and calculation of asteroid flybys towards the planet.
A NASA space probe has lifted off from the USA en route to an asteroid where it will collect samples that will later be returned to Earth.
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose regolith (the layer of unconsolidated rocky material covering bedrock) may record the earliest history of our solar system.
“Tonight is a night for celebration, we are on the way to an asteroid”.
After almost two years in orbit around 101955 Bennu, OSIRIS-REx will attempt an extremely close approach without landing, using its robotic arm to scoop up a material sample from the asteroid’s surface.
While scientists have planned to study the craft’s vacuumed-up material for two years, Grossman predicts that the rock chips and dust will be the subject of investigation for decades, noting that the original samples from the moon are still being studied today.
The asteroid Bennu, discovered by the LINEAR Project back in 1999 is listed as the third highest rated object with a 1 in 2700 chance of impacting Earth in the 22 century has been a potential target for sampling.
Once the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is successfully launched, the mission’s science operations center shifts to LPL, where it will be managed by the UA’s OSIRIS-REx team.
Bennu is a near-earth asteroid that orbits the sun, and makes relatively close passes to Earth. Depending on exactly what OSIRIS-Rex finds though, this could still be a very important clue to how the first living organisms on earth did start to develop. After dropping the capsule on Earth, OSIRIS-Rex will continue into orbit around the Sun where it will wait for further instructions.
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NASA has gone after comet dust and solar wind particles before, but never anything from an asteroid.
