NASA's Asteroid-Hunting Spacecraft Set to Launch September 8 to Obtain 'Primeval' Sample
The agency's goal is to investigate and get samples of the building blocks of life
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch next month, specifically on September 8, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The agency anticipates it to travel towards an asteroid named Bennu.
Getting to Know 'Bennu'
NASA considered three aspects in choosing the best asteroid for the mission. These are composition, size, and its proximity to Earth.
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Bennu is one of the closest asteroids to Earth based on proximity. These kinds of asteroids are called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Asteroid Mission reports that only 192 out of 7,000 NEOs have an Earth-like orbit which is very ideal for the mission as it has low inclination and eccentricity.
The scientists then moved to the next category which is to choose the asteroid with an idyllic size.
Smaller asteroids rotate more rapidly that any foreign object that comes in contact with it gets spewed out due to the speed of the rotation. Scientists had to choose asteroids with a size larger than 200 meters in diameter as these asteroids spin slower than any asteroid with a lesser diameter. Considering these, the number of deliberated asteroids went down to 29 from 192.
Lastly, the remaining asteroids' chemical composition were examined. Researchers had to select the asteroids that are carbon-rich, a great indication that an asteroid has lived for over four billion years. Only 5 of the 26 asteroids are carbon-rich and have pristine composition.
Bennu was selected from the 5 asteroids. It has a size of about 500 meter in diameter and can complete its orbit around the sun every 1.2 years. Bennu also comes close to earth every 6 years and it is seen to cause some contact to Earth come late 22nd century. All these made Bennu the aim for OSIRIS-REx' mission.
What Scientists Say About the Mission
"[Asteroids] were there when the solar system first formed," Dr. Amy Simon, Instrument Scientist for OSIRIS-REx, told CBS Baltimore. She said that "understanding them is going to help us understand how our solar system formed, how other solar systems formed."
"The idea that these asteroids are prebiotic chemical factories, they're making the building blocks of life," said Co-Investigator for OSIRIS-REx Dr. Daniel Glavin. He even added that the mission "kind of gives him chills."
NASA expects OSIRIS-REx to carry back a small sample from the asteroid to Earth by year 2023.
