NASA wants messages for asteroid mission

Wednesday, September 3, 2014 - 09:00 From NASA Reports

A NASA spacecraft will retrieve asteroid samples for study. Artist's concept: NASA.

If you had to make one prediction about space exploration in the year 2023, what would it be?

     The answer could be important. NASA wants to send messages from the public on an upcoming mission to an asteroid.
     The spacecraft making the trip -- known as Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-REx -- will launch in 2016, rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2019, collect a sample and return it in a capsule to Earth in 2023, according to the space agency.
     NASA wants this “time capsule” to contain messages from the public. Topics include:

Thoughts about solar system exploration in 2014.

Predictions for space exploration in 2023.

     The mission team will choose 50 tweets and 50 images to be placed in the capsule. Messages can be submitted Sept. 2-30. (For details on procedures and rules for submissions, click here.)
     The spacecraft will spend more than two years at the 1,760-foot-wide asteroid and return a minimum of 2 ounces of its surface material.
     When the capsule comes back to Earth in 2023, NASA scientists will open the time capsule to view the messages and images. The selected submissions will be posted online here.
     This is the second of NASA’s efforts to engage space enthusiasts around the world in the mission. Earlier this year, the space agency invited the public to submit names to be etched on a microchip aboard the spacecraft.
     The OSIRIS-REx mission is focused on finding answers to basic questions about the composition of the early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made life possible on Earth. The mission also will support the agency's efforts to understand the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.

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