OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission
OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission : Did you like the season 1 of the incredible adventures of Rosetta? Season 2 has begun to take off, (Thursday, September 8, 2016), from the US base at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the OSIRIS-REx mission.
A name straight out of Jurassic Park which means « Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explore ». Like Rosetta’s OSIRIS-REx will probe mission is to come as close to a celestial body to scrutinize every angle.
The appointment in space is scheduled for August 2018. But this new mission has two size differences: first, the heavenly body that will be examined is not a comet but an asteroid. Indeed, we know from the Rosetta mission that comets such as tchouri did not bring on Earth the water that is there now. Astronomers will thus test another hypothesis: check the water in our oceans would not have been brought by asteroids.
Liftoff of OSIRIS-REx : video
