NASA has granted mission extensions to eight different planetary missions, citing the continued excellent operations of the spacecraft, but more importantly, the sustained scientific productivity of these missions, and the potential to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the solar system and beyond.
One of the most exciting extensions gives a new mission to the OSIRIS-REx, which will send it to the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis.
OSIRIS-REx will drop off a sample from the asteroid Bennu in September of 2023. The sample was grabbed in October of 2020.
After it drops off the sample return capsule, which will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land under a parachute in Utah, it will be renamed OSIRIS-APEX.
The deputy principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx said that Apophis is one of the most notorious asteroids. It will be the closest an asteroid of this size has gotten in the last 50 years or so, and we were excited to find out.
Apophis has a diameter of over one thousand feet. It will come within one-tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon in 2029.
OSIRIS-APEX won't collect a sample, but it will study the asteroid for 18 months and collect data along the way. During sample collection at Bennu, it made a maneuver similar to the one it made when approaching the surface. The team said that this event will expose the asteroid to allow scientists to learn more about its material properties.
The exact time of the Earth flyby in 2029 is still being worked out, but it will be around that time. Changes in the asteroid were caused by its close flyby of our planet.
The high-resolution camera and instruments on the OSIRIS-APEX will allow for an unprecedented study of Apophis. Our craft is very good at that.
The Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and the Curiosity rover are some of the missions that have been extended. It's not clear if InSight will be able to remain in service due to dust on its solar panels. Unless the solar panels are cleared by a passing dust devil or wind, the current electrical power production is low.
The New Horizons mission, which flew past Pluto in 2015, is one of the extended missions. It flew past a strange dog.
Each extended mission proposal was reviewed by a panel of more than 50 experts.
The director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA said that NASA's large investments in exploration allow continued science operations at a cost far lower than developing a new mission.
NASA and the University of Arizona are sources.
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