NASA asteroid mission could explain how life began (and the way ours might end)

05.25.11

NASA will launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 and use a robotic arm to pluck samples that might better explain our solar system’s formation and the way life began. The mission, called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, stands out as the first U.S. mission to hold samples from an asteroid back to Earth.

“It is a critical step in meeting the objectives outlined by President Obama to increase our reach beyond low-Earth orbit and explore into deep space,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. “It’s robotic missions like these in an effort to pave the manner for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep space destinations.”

NASA selected OSIRIS-REx after reviewing three concept study reports for brand new scientific missions, which also included a sample return mission from the far side of the Moon and a mission to the skin of Venus.

Asteroids are leftovers formed from the cloud of gas and mud — the solar nebula — that collapsed to form our sun and the planets about 4.5 billion years ago. As such, they contain the unique material from the solar nebula, which may let us know in regards to the conditions of our solar system’s birth.

After traveling four years, OSIRIS-REx will approach the primitive, near Earth asteroid designated 1999 RQ36 in 2020. Once within three miles of the asteroid, the spacecraft will begin six 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 towards the positioning, and the arm will extend to gather greater than two ounces of fabric for return to Earth in 2023. The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is predicted to price approximately $800 million.

The sample can be stored in a capsule for you to land at Utah’s Test and coaching Range in 2023. The capsule’s design would be equivalent to that utilized by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which returned the world’s first comet particles from comet Wild 2 in 2006. The OSIRIS-REx sample capsule can be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The fabric would be removed and dropped at a dedicated research facility following stringent planetary protection protocol. Precise analysis might be performed that can not be duplicated by spacecraft-based instruments.

RQ36 is approximately 1,900 feet in diameter or roughly the dimensions of 5 football fields. The asteroid, little altered through the years, is probably going to symbolize a snapshot of our solar system’s infancy. The asteroid is also likely rich in carbon, a key element within the organic molecules necessary for all times. Organic molecules were present in meteorite and comet samples, indicating a few of life’s ingredients might be created in space. Scientists would like to see in the event that they are also present on RQ36.

“This asteroid is a time capsule from the birth of our solar system and ushers in a brand new era of planetary exploration,” said Jim Green, director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington. “The understanding from the mission will also help us to develop the right way to better track the orbits of asteroids.”

The mission will accurately measure the “Yarkovsky effect” for the primary time. The effect is a small push as a result of the sun on an asteroid, because it absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat. The small push adds up over the years, nonetheless it is uneven as a result of an asteroid’s shape, wobble, surface composition and rotation. For scientists to foretell an Earth-approaching asteroid’s path, they need to know the way the effect will change its orbit. OSIRIS-REx should help refine RQ36′s orbit to envision its trajectory and devise future strategies to mitigate possible Earth impacts from celestial objects.

Michael Drake of the University of Arizona in Tucson is the mission’s principal investigator. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft. The OSIRIS-REx payload includes instruments from the University of Arizona, Goddard, Arizona State University in Tempe and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., the Langley Research Center in Hampton Va., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are also involved. The science team consists of diverse researchers from universities, private and government agencies.

It is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. The primary, New Horizons, was launched in 2006. It may fly by the Pluto-Charon system in July 2015, then target another Kuiper Belt object for study. The second one mission, Juno, will launch in August to become the primary spacecraft to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole and study the enormous planet’s atmosphere and interior. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.