“This is a critical step in meeting the objectives outlined by President Obama to extend our reach beyond low Earth orbit and explore into deep space,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.
“It’s robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep space destinations.”
NASA selected OSIRIS-REx after reviewing three concept study reports for new scientific missions, which also included a sample return mission from the farside of the Moon and a mission to the surface of Venus.
Asteroids are leftovers formed from the cloud of gas and dust — the solar nebula — that collapsed to form our Sun and the planets about 4.5 billion years ago. As such, they contain the original material from the solar nebula, which can tell us about the conditions of our solar system’s birth.
After traveling 4 years, OSIRIS-REx will approach the primitive, near Earth asteroid designated 1999 RQ36 in 2020. Once within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the asteroid, the spacecraft will begin 6 months of comprehensive surface mapping. The science team then will pick a location from where the spacecraft’s arm will take a sample. The spacecraft gradually will move closer to the site, and the arm will extend to collect more than 2 ounces (57 grams) of material for return to Earth in 2023. The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is expected to cost approximately $800 million.
The sample will be stored in a capsule that will land at Utah’s Test and Training Range in 2023. The capsule’s design will be similar to that used by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which returned the world’s first comet particles from Comet Wild 2 in 2006. The OSIRIS-REx sample capsule will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The material will be removed and delivered to a dedicated research facility following stringent planetary protection protocol. Scientists will then perform precise analysis that spacecraft-based instruments cannot duplicate.
RQ36 is approximately 1,900 feet (580 meters) in diameter, or roughly the size of five football fields. The asteroid, little altered over time, is likely to represent a snapshot of our solar system’s infancy. The asteroid also is likely rich in carbon, a key element in the organic molecules necessary for life. Organic molecules have been found in meteorite and comet samples, indicating some of life’s ingredients can be created in space. Scientists want to see if they also are present on RQ36.
“This asteroid is a time capsule from the birth of our solar system and ushers in a new era of planetary exploration,” said Jim Green, director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington, D.C. “The knowledge from the mission also will help us to develop methods to better track the orbits of asteroids.”
The mission will accurately measure the “Yarkovsky effect” for the first time. The effect is a small push caused by the Sun on an asteroid as it absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat.
The small push adds up over time, but it is uneven due to an asteroid’s shape, wobble, surface composition, and rotation. For scientists to predict an Earth-approaching asteroid’s path, they must understand how the effect will change its orbit. OSIRIS-REx will help refine RQ36’s orbit to ascertain its trajectory and devise future strategies to mitigate possible Earth impacts from celestial objects.
“This is a critical step in meeting the objectives outlined by President Obama to extend our reach beyond low Earth orbit and explore into deep space,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.
“It’s robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep space destinations.”
NASA selected OSIRIS-REx after reviewing three concept study reports for new scientific missions, which also included a sample return mission from the farside of the Moon and a mission to the surface of Venus.
Asteroids are leftovers formed from the cloud of gas and dust — the solar nebula — that collapsed to form our Sun and the planets about 4.5 billion years ago. As such, they contain the original material from the solar nebula, which can tell us about the conditions of our solar system’s birth.
After traveling 4 years, OSIRIS-REx will approach the primitive, near Earth asteroid designated 1999 RQ36 in 2020. Once within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the asteroid, the spacecraft will begin 6 months of comprehensive surface mapping. The science team then will pick a location from where the spacecraft’s arm will take a sample. The spacecraft gradually will move closer to the site, and the arm will extend to collect more than 2 ounces (57 grams) of material for return to Earth in 2023. The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is expected to cost approximately $800 million.
The sample will be stored in a capsule that will land at Utah’s Test and Training Range in 2023. The capsule’s design will be similar to that used by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which returned the world’s first comet particles from Comet Wild 2 in 2006. The OSIRIS-REx sample capsule will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The material will be removed and delivered to a dedicated research facility following stringent planetary protection protocol. Scientists will then perform precise analysis that spacecraft-based instruments cannot duplicate.
RQ36 is approximately 1,900 feet (580 meters) in diameter, or roughly the size of five football fields. The asteroid, little altered over time, is likely to represent a snapshot of our solar system’s infancy. The asteroid also is likely rich in carbon, a key element in the organic molecules necessary for life. Organic molecules have been found in meteorite and comet samples, indicating some of life’s ingredients can be created in space. Scientists want to see if they also are present on RQ36.
“This asteroid is a time capsule from the birth of our solar system and ushers in a new era of planetary exploration,” said Jim Green, director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington, D.C. “The knowledge from the mission also will help us to develop methods to better track the orbits of asteroids.”
The mission will accurately measure the “Yarkovsky effect” for the first time. The effect is a small push caused by the Sun on an asteroid as it absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat.
The small push adds up over time, but it is uneven due to an asteroid’s shape, wobble, surface composition, and rotation. For scientists to predict an Earth-approaching asteroid’s path, they must understand how the effect will change its orbit. OSIRIS-REx will help refine RQ36’s orbit to ascertain its trajectory and devise future strategies to mitigate possible Earth impacts from celestial objects.
