[FPSPACE] FW: NASA: New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016

[LARRY KLAES]

> Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 17:03:03 -0400
> Subject: NASA: New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016
> From: rick.fienberg at aas.org
> To: Rick.Fienberg at aas.org
> 
> THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM NASA HEADQUARTERS IN
> WASHINGTON, DC, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION. (FORWARDING
> DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.) Rick
> Fienberg, AAS Press Officer: rick.fienberg at aas.org, +1 202-328-2010
> x116.
> 
> May 25, 2011
> 
> Contact:
> Dwayne C. Brown
> Headquarters, Washington
> +1 202-358-1726
> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
> 
> NASA TO LAUNCH NEW SCIENCE
> MISSION TO ASTEROID IN 2016
> 
> NASA will launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 and use a robotic
> arm to pluck samples that could better explain our solar system’s
> formation and how life began. The mission, called Origins-Spectral
> Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or
> OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an
> asteroid back to Earth.
> 
> “This is a critical step in meeting the objectives outlined by
> President Obama to extend our reach beyond low-Earth orbit and explore
> into deep space,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. “It’s
> robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human
> space missions to an asteroid and other deep space destinations.”
> 
> NASA selected OSIRIS-REx after reviewing three concept study reports
> for new scientific missions, which also included a sample return
> mission from the far side of the moon and a mission to the surface of
> Venus.
> 
> Asteroids are leftovers formed from the cloud of gas and dust -- the
> solar nebula -- that collapsed to form our Sun and the planets about
> 4.5 billion years ago. As such, they contain the original material
> from the solar nebula, which can tell us about 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 closer to the site, and the arm will
> extend to collect more than two ounces of material for return to Earth
> in 2023. The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is expected to
> cost approximately $800 million.
> 
> The sample will be stored in a capsule that will land at Utah’s Test
> and Training Range in 2023. The capsule’s design will be similar to
> that used by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which returned the world’s
> first comet particles from comet Wild 2 in 2006. The OSIRIS-REx sample
> capsule will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The
> material will be removed and delivered to a dedicated research
> facility following stringent planetary protection protocol. Precise
> analysis will be performed that cannot be duplicated by
> spacecraft-based instruments.
> 
> RQ36 is approximately 1,900 feet in diameter or roughly the size of
> five football fields. The asteroid, little altered over time, is
> likely to represent a snapshot of our solar system’s infancy. The
> asteroid also is likely rich in carbon, a key element in the organic
> molecules necessary for life. Organic molecules have been found in
> meteorite and comet samples, indicating some of life’s ingredients can
> be created in space. Scientists want to see if they also are present
> on RQ36.
> 
> “This asteroid is a time capsule from the birth of our solar system
> and ushers in a new era of planetary exploration,” said Jim Green,
> director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington. “The
> knowledge from the mission also will help us to develop methods to
> better track the orbits of asteroids.”
> 
> The mission will accurately measure the “Yarkovsky effect” for the
> first time. The effect is a small push caused by the Sun on an
> asteroid, as it absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat. The
> small push adds up over time, but it is uneven due to an asteroid’s
> shape, wobble, surface composition and rotation. For scientists to
> predict an Earth-approaching asteroid’s path, they must understand how
> the effect will change its orbit. OSIRIS-REx will help refine RQ36’s
> orbit to ascertain 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.,
> also are involved. The science team is composed of numerous
> researchers from universities, private and government agencies.
> 
> This is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. The first,
> New Horizons, was launched in 2006. It will fly by the Pluto-Charon
> system in July 2015, then target another Kuiper Belt object for study.
> The second mission, Juno, will launch in August to become the first
> spacecraft to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole and study the giant
> 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.
> 
> More information about OSIRIS-REx:
> http://www.nasa.gov
> 
> Press release from University of Arizona:
> http://www.uanews.org/node/40051
> 
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