Washington: US space agency NASA on Thursday launched the nation’s first mission that will visit an asteroid and bring precious samples back to Earth.
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The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US in this September 8, 2016 handout photo.
Scientists hypothesize that Bennu formed 4.5 billion years ago, about the same time as our own planet, and from the same disc of gas and dust which made up our early solar system.
The asteroid – about 1,600 feet across – is believed to harbor carbon dating back 4.5 billion years, to the beginning of our solar system.
Therefore, this is “a journey that could revolutionize our understanding of the early solar system”, NASA said in a statement.
Another objective of the probe is to study Bennu’s characteristics, as well as its shape, size, mass and orbit, which is nearly circular and approaches the Earth every six years.
“Today, we celebrate a huge milestone for this remarkable mission, and for this mission team”, said Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA.
“One of the basic questions that scientists are still asking is, where did the organics come from that allowed life to arise on Earth?” said Ed Beshore, deputy principal investigator for the mission.
“Tonight is a night for celebration”. The spacecraft will fly by the Earth next year; the planet’s gravity will help sling it toward the near-Earth asteroid. The sample it collects will return to Earth in 2023.
“Just right about now, it’s on its closest approach to the Earth, passing underneath the Earth at about 21,000 miles (33,796 kilometers)”, Johnson said a briefing Wednesday afternoon. OSIRIS-REx shoot straight to the 500-meter wide asteroid Bennu and will reach the target by 2018. If the craft can safely extract and return at least 2 ounces of the loose material sitting on the bedrock of the carbonaceous asteroid, it will be considered a success. Japan’s Hayabusa 1 probe managed to return a few tiny grains of asteroid Itokawa to Earth in 2010, the first asteroid sample return mission.
The mission also won’t be about shattering asteroids. “Not only are we going to get material into laboratories for precise chemical analyses that can’t be duplicated by spacecraft instruments, but this will [also] be treasure trove of information and material for future scientists”.
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If all goes as planned, OSIRIS will return to Earth on September 24, 2023, giving scientists firsthand knowledge of the asteroid.
