OSIRIS-REx, short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification-Regolith Explorer, should reach the near-Earth asteroid by 2018.
Advertisement
Emerging Emirati leaders in the space industry attended NASA’s OSIRIS-REx launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida in the United States as part of Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) Generation Space: Space Fundamentals Training Program.
“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.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will travel to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, and use a robotic arm to bring a small sample back to Earth for study. “Inside that canister will be precious samples of the earliest materials from the origins of the solar system”.
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.
Osiris-Rex is fitted with a device called an infrared spectrometer. A sampling container will then release a swirl of nitrogen gas, which will stir up gravel and soil for collection.
It’s the biggest space project in Arizona history.
United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The spacecraft will eventually land on the surface of the asteroid and take samples to bring back to earth.
The U.S. space agency also hopes Osiris-Rex will demonstrate the advanced imaging and mapping techniques needed for future science missions and for upcoming commercial asteroid-mining expeditions.
Advertisement
NASA includes the Bennu asteroid on its list of Potentially Hazardous Asteriods (PHA) closest to Earth, as, according to current calculations, it has a 1 in 2,700 chance of hitting the Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199.
