NASA’s asteroid-sampling mission to launch in September
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.0210028
Ars Technica : On 8 September, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket on a two-year journey to the asteroid Bennu. The probe will orbit the 500-m-wide asteroid, taking high-resolution images of the surface and collecting other data. The primary mission of sample return begins nearly two years after the initial data-taking phase. The probe will use a 3 m arm to collect at least 60 g of surface material. The goal is to compare the composition of a pristine asteroid with the remnants of asteroids that have fallen to Earth as meteorites. In a previous mission, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft managed to grab only about 1500 grains from a stony asteroid. Bennu, on the other hand, is a carbon-rich asteroid. Such asteroids are considered a possible source of Earth’s hydrocarbon molecules.
