NASA's Mission to Asteroid Bennu - Essay Example

Basically, the question being asked by the project, that they hope to answer is “can you go to an asteroid, collect material, and bring it back to earth?” (Algar, Jim “NASA Gets Go-Ahead To Build Spacecraft for Space Sampling Mission”)/ This paper will look deeper into the relevance of the mission to Bennu, the current status of the project, and finally, make conclusions about the possible success or failure of the space mission. This will be done by presenting the latest facts about the mission as taken from the latest news and scientific reports / updates related to the 2016 space mission.

In order to fully grasp the importance of the mission to Asteroid Bennu, the public must first understand the key mission objectives of the project. All of which are crucial to the continued study of planet and life preservation on Earth. These mission objectives are: Having received financing and support from the government to implement the project, NASA has begun to develop the spacecraft that will be used for this unmanned mission. Known as the Origins, Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, OSIRIS REx for short the unmanned explorer was approved at the Mission Design Critical Review at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Ohio this April (Myles, Robert “NASAs Asteroid Sample Mission Gets Go-Ahead”).

With a planned launch date in the Fall of 2016, the craft is expected to rendezvous with the 493 meter asteroid in 2018. OSIRUS - REx will have 5 onboard instruments meant to help with data and sample collection. A task that is expected to last at least one year. The samples and data will then take a 5 year trip back to earth where NASA will collect the samples and other onboard data for long term experimentation, research, and study well into the 2020s (Myles, Robert “NASAs Asteroid Sample Mission