NASA's Asteroid Option
cygonaut
NASA's Asteroid Option
NASA will decide whether to send an unmanned probe to the
moon, Venus or an asteroid and to launch no later than December 30,
2018.
If the asteroid
option is chosen, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft would journey to a near
asteroid, collect samples, and return to earth. Scientists say the samples could
help better explain how the solar system came into being and the molecular
origins of life.
The probe would rendezvous with and enter orbit around a
primitive carbon-rich asteroid to conduct extensive measurements. A sampler
aboard the spacecraft would collect more than two
ounces of material from the asteroid for return to Earth.
The Osiris-Rex concept was proposed for the Discovery program in 2004 and 2006. Although the mission scored high on science, engineering and management metrics, NASA judged Osiris-Rex too expensive for the lower-cost Discovery program, which was cost-capped at $425 million.
Scientists say Osiris-Rex comfortably fits into the cost envelope for a New Frontiers mission.
"This mission will spend a year orbiting the asteroid, mapping it, taking pictures of the rocks, measuring the reflection of the sunlight off of it so we understand something about the mineralogy, and picking the very best place on the asteroid to go down and do a touch-and-go, kind of a rendezvous, not a landing," Hertz said.
Osiris-Rex would return a pristine sample to Earth, giving researchers a valuable specimen that could hold clues about the formation of the solar system and the origin of life.
Other objectives of the mission would include mapping the asteroid, identifying resources that could be used in human exploration, and studying the potential for asteroids to impact Earth.
Michael Drake of the University of Arizona in Tucson leads the Osiris-Rex science team.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0912/29newfrontiers/