First American Mission To Sample An Asteroid Gets Green Light
Illustration of OSIRIS-REx University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx will scoop up a couple of ounces of dirt from the asteroid Bennu and bring it back to Earth. Earth-bound scientists are on track to get their hands on asteroid soil, straight from the source, in 2023. An asteroid-sampling mission, planned for launch in 2016, is moving into development, NASA and the University of Arizona announced yesterday. The mission, called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-REx, will land a spacecraft on the asteroid Bennu, scoop up at least two ounces of its dirt, and bring the sample back to Earth for testing. OSIRIS-REx's planners hope Bennu's soil will contain molecules dating from the origin of the solar system. Bennu may contain water and amino acids, which would offer clues to the birth of the solar system and of life on Earth. OSIRIS-REx will also map Bennu's other properties, such as...