NASA to Build OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft that will Visit Asteroid in 2018

We typically hear about asteroids in a destructive fashion: those that collide with each other in space and create explosions. Yet NASA could soon make history with an upcoming asteroid project.

NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will conduct the first U.S. mission to visit an asteroid and collect samples from its surface. The spacecraft was cleared for construction last week after a successful Mission Critical Design Review (CDR).

The artist's concept of the OSIRIS-REx can be found in this NASA news release. The spacecraft is expected to visit the asteroid Bennu in 2018. 101955 Bennu was discovered on September 11, 1999 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research Team at Socorro, New Mexico. The asteroid's orbit classification is Apollo, which is a near-Earth orbit.

The OSIRIS-REx is expected to launch in the fall of 2016, arriving at Bennu two years later to scan the asteroid and collect samples to return to Earth in 2023. The five instruments that will be aboard the spacecraft will evaluate Bennu's surface for over a year before collecting two ounces of samples. But this is not all set-in-stone yet.

"This is the final step for a NASA mission to go from paper to product," said Gordon Johnston, OSIRIS-REx program executive, in a news release. "This confirms that the final design is ready to start the build-up towards launch."

The OSIRIS team came together ten years ago to discuss this project for the NASA Discovery Program. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona is the team's principal investigator who will be in collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

After years of research, design, and pitching, the team was granted clearance to begin their mission last Wednesday. But it's no surprise that the approval process took such a long time; the budget for the mission exceeds $800 million and that doesn't include the costs of the launch vehicle.

However, come 2023, the Earth will possess a sample of an asteroid obtained by a NASA-designed spacecraft. To read more about OSIRIS-REx and Bennu, visit the OSIRIS website.