OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is the third mission chosen as part of NASA’s New Frontiers programme of frequent, medium-class spacecraft missions that address high-priority exploration initiatives in the solar system. Eastern time, according to the official press release.
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The encapsulated OSIRIS-REx was lifted into the VIF on Monday. “This mission exemplifies our nation’s quest to boldly go and study our solar system and beyond to better understand the universe and our place in it”, said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
After its September 8 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, scheduled for 7:05 p.m., the spacecraft will travel to Bennu, a almost 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid that’s about twice the length of the Titanic and moving at an average speed of 63,000 miles per hour.
The solar-powered robotic spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, is set to rendezvous with asteroid 1999 RQ36, nicknamed Bennu, in two years, for mapping and surveys, then use a robotic arm to collect samples for return in 2023.
According to NASA, the main goal of OSIRIS-Rex is to collect organic materials from the surface of Bennu.
Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) – A student experiment provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in Cambridge, which will observe the X-ray spectrum to identify chemical elements on Bennu’s surface and their abundances.
Once the spacecraft gathers the dust needed, the next question now is who gets to keep the samples?
Additionally, the spacecraft has two systems that will enable the sample collection and return: Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) and OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule (SRC). The space agency is reportedly planning to divide the samples to its partners across the world.
Once cataloguing the asteroid samples have been done, scientists from NASA will divide them among their mission partners. The remaining 5 percent will be handed over to NASA’s base located in White Sands.
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What remains will be saved, OSIRIS REx program executive Gordon Johnston has said, “for the science questions we haven’t figured out to even ask yet, and the science laboratory instruments that we haven’t even developed yet”.
