NASA Asteroid Sampling Mission Renamed OSIRIS-APEX for New Journey

The previous OSIRIS-REx spacecraft triggers on a journey to study asteroid Apophis and make the most of the asteroid’s 2029 flyby of Earth, the similarity which hasn’t occurred because the dawn of taped history.

At the end of a long-haul journey, it may be time to kick up your feet and rest some time– particularly if it was a seven-year, 4 billion-mile journey to bring Earth a sample of asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security– Regolith Explorer), the NASA objective that achieved this task in September, is currently well on its method (with a brand-new name) to check out a brand-new location.

When OSIRIS-REx left Bennu in May 2021 with a sample aboard, its instruments remained in excellent condition, and it still had a quarter of its fuel left. Rather of shutting down the spacecraft after it provided the samplethe group proposed to dispatch it on a reward objective to asteroid Apophiswith an anticipated arrival in April 2029. NASA concurred, and OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security– Apophis Explorer) was born.

A Rare Opportunity at Apophis

After thinking about a number of locations (consisting of Venus and numerous comets), NASA selected to send out the spacecraft to Apophis, an “S-type” asteroid made from silicate products and nickel-iron– a reasonable bit various than the carbon-rich, “C-type” Bennu.

The intrigue of Apophis is its incredibly close technique of our world on April 13, 2029. Apophis will not strike Earth throughout this encounter or in the foreseeable future, the pass in 2029 will bring the asteroid within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of the surface area– closer than some satellites, and close enough that it might be noticeable to the naked eye in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Researchers approximate that asteroids of Apophis’ size, about 367 lawns throughout (about 340 meters), come this c