NASA Set To Launch Groundbreaking First Mission To Near Earth Asteroid

American space agency NASA is ready to launch its pioneering $800 million mission to near Earth asteroid Bennu on Thursday to gather samples, which could provide more insight into the evolution of the solar system as well as life itself. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is reportedly scheduled to take off at 7:05 pm on Sep 8 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"The primary objective of the mission is to bring back 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of pristine carbon-rich material from the surface of Bennu," said Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator. "We expect these samples will contain organic molecules from the early solar system that may give us information and clues to the origin of life".

Incidentally, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been made by Lockheed Martin, and will be transported on an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed's joint venture. The spacecraft is expected to reach Bennu sometime during August 2018, where it will collect the needful samples, and make its return journey in 2023.

Once the OSIRIX-Rex reaches Bennu, which measures 492 meters in diameter, five instruments aboard the spacecraft will use 3D imaging to map its surface, and then select a sample site after identifying the surface chemicals and minerals. However, it will only be in July 2020 that OSIRIX-Rex, which is the short form of Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, will actually touch Bennu for all of three seconds to collect dust and rocks from the asteroid with a device called Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). The OSIRIS-REx will leave Bennu in March 2021 and reach Earth during September 2023, after two and a half years of travel.

In addition to throwing light on the formation of the solar system, the mission will also create the groundwork for future asteroid explorations as well as measure the Yarkovsky effect, i.e. the impact of the heating force of the sun on rotating asteroids that can result in them drifting widely over a course of time. Understanding the effect could enable researchers to make more accurate predictions about the long term risks that asteroids pose for Earth, as well as plan diversions of those that could be on a collision path with our planet.