NASA successfully launched a spacecraft Thursday, that will, if all goes to plan, travel to a nearby asteroid as a part of a seven-year journey in which it will collect samples that may provide answers on the evolution of the universe and origins of life as we know it.
The Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday evening atop a Atlas V rocket. The $800 million mission will have the 4,650 pound spacecraft travel to Bennu, which is what NASA classifies as a “near-Earth asteroid,” collect samples and bring them back to Earth. The probe is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2018.
Upon reaching the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will spend six months mapping the surface of the asteroid from afar and then will use a robotic arm to collect samples that will be brought back to Earth in 2023.
OSIRIS-REx is equipped with solar panels, which, when deployed, make the craft about 20 feet long and 10 feet high. The spacecraft also has equipment to collect samples, navigation and communications hardware and a capsule for the samples’ reentry to Earth.
The asteroid which orbits the sun at a slightly different orbit than the Earth’s, is a “B-type” asteroid, which is rich in carbon. NASA says these B-types “are thought to be primitive remnants of the original building blocks of our solar system and to contain clay minerals formed from rocks in the presence of liquid water.”
NASA also classifies Bennu as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” that comes relatively close to Earth about every six years. Scientists hope the mission will help them better understand the threat asteroids like Bennu pose to Earth.
The diameter of the asteroid is 1,614 feet, which is slightly taller than the Empire State Building in New York City (1,454 feet), and takes about 1.2 Earth years to orbit the sun, according to NASA.
