The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is created to rendezvous with, study, and return a sample of the asteroid Bennu to Earth.
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NASA launched its OSIRIS-REx probe today on America’s first mission to snag samples from a near-Earth asteroid and bring them back to Earth – and added a Star Trek twist.
The first NASA explorer of its kind took off on a seven-year quest Thursday, chasing after a big, black, unexplored asteroid to gather a few handfuls of gravel for return to Earth.
A United Launch Alliance rocket assembled in Decatur, Ala., lifted NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe off the launch pad on time and flawlessly Thursday night at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“You can think of these asteroids as literally prebiotic chemical factories that were producing building blocks of life 4.5 billion years ago, before Earth formed, before life started here”, NASA astrobiologist Daniel Glavin said before launch.
United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.
It would be too tricky to land on the asteroid, so the space probe will reach out its 10-foot robotic arm to poke Bennu and capture just about 2 ounces of dust.
Once OSIRIS-REx has made the two year journey to Bennu its real mission will begin.
Touch the asteroid (after asking consent first, and with a platonic vibe) so we can bring a small sample back to Earth for study.
NASA’s launched a potentially ground-breaking mission – as an unmanned spacecraft took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral.
“The information we’re going to gain from OSIRIS-REx, it’s really going to help pull back the curtains on the origin of this planet, on the origin of life itself”, said NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan.
A packed house at ASU’s Marston Exploration theater watched the successful launch of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. It will tap the asteroid to capture some dust and rock, as little as four tablespoons or as much as four pounds.
“We will be able to see an object the size of a penny”, said Daniella DellaGiustina, lead image processing scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
But OSIRIS-REx won’t land. That means Bennu is one of the most risky space rocks we know of because it could one day collide with Earth.
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But aside from that, the mission will also observe the potential risk of the said asteroid to Earth.
