OSIRIS-REx

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 OSIRIS-REx is the third major planetary science mission for NASA’s New Frontiers Program (after New Horizons launched in 2006 and Juno launched in 2011).

OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer." The goal of the mission is to collect a sample weighing at least 2.1 ounces (59.5 grams) from near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu (formerly known as 1999 RQ36) and then bring the sample to Earth.

The mission, developed by scientists at the University of Arizona, will give us more information about how the early solar system formed and about how life began. It will also help us better understand asteroids that could impact Earth in the future.

It was launched on Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Mission team members will retrieve the capsule as soon as possible after it lands to ensure the sample is not contaminated by exposure to Earth’s environment. They will fly it by helicopter to a temporary clean room set up at the training range and prepare the sample for transport to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston the next day. Scientists at Johnson will care for the sample, store it, and distribute it to the OSIRIS-REx science team and other scientists worldwide. Most of the sample will be available upon request for generations to come.

Bennu:

Scientists predict that Bennu formed from pieces of a larger asteroid in the asteroid belt after a catastrophic collision between 1 and 2 billion years ago. Considered a “rubble-pile” asteroid, Bennu is an amalgamation of rocks that are loosely packed and barely held together by gravity or other forces. The asteroid is relatively rich in organic molecules. Its materials also appear to have been chemically altered by liquid water in the distant past, likely when it was still part of the larger asteroid it came from. A major question in science is: how did Earth come to have an abundance of organic molecules and liquid water, two key ingredients for life as we know it? Scientists say that asteroids like Bennu could have delivered these ingredients through collisions with Earth billions of years ago.

Here are three of the many reasons NASA chose to study Bennu.

The asteroid is a remnant from the tumultuous formation of the solar system, unlike any rocks we can find on Earth. On our planet, weather, erosion, and plate tectonics have wiped away evidence of Earth’s formation. Thus, Bennu’s rocks offer us insight into our own history – a time about 4.5 billion years ago when Earth was first forming.

Bennu is rich in organic compounds that make up all known life. There is evidence that asteroids like Bennu delivered these compounds to Earth when they smashed into our planet billions of years ago when the conditions for life were starting to emerge. Scientists want to learn more about this early period, and samples of a well-preserved asteroid could help them do that.

Most asteroids can be found in the asteroid belt, a ring of asteroids that circles the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid belt is very far away, so a round trip would take a long time and be much harder to do. Bennu, in contrast, crosses Earth’s orbit, so it was easier and quicker to send a spacecraft to Bennu and back.

After a year, the mission team selected a sample site called “Nightingale” located in a northern crater 460 feet (140 meters) wide. The crater is thought to be relatively young, and the regolith, or rocks and dust, is freshly exposed. This means the site would likely allow for a pristine sample of the asteroid, giving the team insight into Bennu’s history.

OSIRIS-REx Frequently Asked Questions - NASA

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