... confirms that Bennu, a remnant from early in the formation of the solar system, is an excellent specimen for the OSIRIS-REx mission to study the composition of primitive volatiles and organics,” said Amy Simon, OVIRS deputy instrument scientist...
...as much information as possible about Bennu well before then. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to get close to Bennu in August 2018, ... After depositing the sample into a return canister, OSIRIS-REx will leave Bennu and head back for Earth, ...
... and return it to scientists for analysis. Yesterday, OSIRIS-REx achieved the first part of this incredible feat by swooping...major accomplishments for the team,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in ...
... the Earth and use our planet’s gravity like a slingshot to fling it on direct course towards asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer will pass the...
... it re-emits the energy as heat. Of course the pièce de résistance will be a sample of the asteroid itself, and exactly whereabouts OSIRIS-REx’s extendable sampling arm will pluck this material from will be decided by the survey. During the sampling...
...spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center...