Thursday, June 22, 2023, 9:00 pm to 10:15 pm EST

How Science Keeps Earth Safe from Hazardous Asteroids

Register for this Space Forum

with

Jonathan Dagle
Technologist, Futurist, and Strategist
NSS Policy Chair and Planetary Defense Policy Manager

Saving Earth from asteroids is likely not high in most people’s thought processes. But the danger is real as there are about 1,000 asteroids a kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earth’s orbit (the path Earth takes around the Sun). It is estimated that about a third of these will eventually hit Earth. The most recent major hit occurred on 15 February 2013 when the Chelyabinsk meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere over Russia.

The asteroid was not detected before its atmospheric entry, in part because its source direction was close to the Sun. The blast from this asteroid’s shock wave broke windows nearly 60 miles away and caused about 1,500 people to be injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. Had this asteroid struck a major population center the devastation would have been horrendous.

The reality is that if we don’t do something, sooner or later Earth will be hit by an asteroid large enough to cause enormous destruction and even threaten life on Earth. The National Space Society has identified “Defending Earth: Protecting humanity from dangerous space objects” as one of its major goals. NSS is also working to urge Congress to address the threats of near-Earth objects. With the success of NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission that changed the orbit of asteroid Dimorphous, more efforts are being made by NASA and other researchers to combat these threats, including the development of a telescope that will spot these asteroids before they find us.

Don’t miss this exciting and informative space forum featuring Jonathan Dagle, the NSS Policy Chair and Planetary Defense Policy Manager. Jonathan will provide an overview of the asteroid threat, how planetary defense works in practice, and what’s on the horizon. Use the registration links to reserve your seat and ask your questions.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jonathan Dagle is a technologist, futurist, and strategist. He helps organizations craft strategies and implement technologies to better achieve their goals. A retired Air Force officer with diverse, international experiences, Jon has served as a bombing range manager in Germany, an air combat operations planner, an aircrew instructor, strategist at Air Force “Checkmate,” and created the Air National Guard’s strategy division. He participated in several war-games, managed and participated in think tank research studies, and consulted on several Army War College studies.

Jonathan is the Policy Chair and Planetary Defense Policy Manager for the National Space Society. He is responsible for overseeing the development of NSS positions on legislation and other space matters. He also leads the development of planetary defense policy. He represents NSS as a board member of the Alliance for Space Development.

Register today to reserve your seat and ask your questions. Use the link below.

Register for this Space Forum

Register no later than June 22 at 8 pm EST

Past NSS Space Forums and Town Halls may be viewed here.

The Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. The Tunguska event in 1908. The meteor that hit Chelyabinsk in 2013. Three infamous examples of Earth being attacked by an object from space. Could it happen again? What is the difference between asteroids, comets, and meteors? How bad will an impact be? Will it be an extinction event? Can anything be done to prevent this?

Luckily, A History of Near-Earth Objects Research provides answers to these disturbing questions. The book focuses on near-earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets that pass very close to Earth. From the discovery of the first NEO, asteroid 433 Eros, in 1898, to today’s more advanced NEO search efforts, the book covers a lot of ground. In early 2016, NASA formed the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) in order to deal with the threat of a NEO hitting Earth.

The book does an excellent job of describing various robotic space missions relevant to NEO research. Without a doubt, the most interesting spacecraft discussed is NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). At the time of the book’s publication, DART was an ongoing mission, a project of NASA’s PDCO, and a true test of planetary defense. On September 26, 2022, the spacecraft intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, a small asteroid that orbits another asteroid named Didymos, in order to change the trajectory of Dimorphos. While neither asteroid poses any risk to Earth, the results of DART’s collision is helping teach scientists how to change the trajectory of a dangerous NEO in the future.

Other notable spacecraft include: NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker (asteroids 433 Eros and 253 Mathilde), ESA’s Rosetta (comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko), and JAXA’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 (asteroids 25143 Itokawa and 162173 Ryugu, respectively). There is also NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, which studied asteroid 101955 Bennu. In 2022, NASA announced an extension of the mission called OSIRIS-APEX that will be sent to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis. While this new mission is not mentioned in A History of Near-Earth Objects Research, the book does have a lot to say about Apophis, as it will make a close approach to Earth on April 13, 2029.

As with most space history books, A History of Near-Earth Objects Research is an account of talented individuals making incredible discoveries. Readers will learn about dozens of scientists working to protect Earth from NEOs. Astronomers Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, Eleanor Helin, and Tom Gehrels are among the most intriguing figures in the book. Other prominent individuals include co-author Donald Yeomans and Lindley Johnson, NASA’s first Planetary Defense Officer and current program executive of PDCO.

Space enthusiasts will not be surprised by the heavy use of acronyms in the book. Examples include: CCD, GEODSS, NEAT, NEODyS, NEOWISE, PACS, Pan-STARRS, PCAS, WISE, etc. Inexperienced space readers might find this somewhat confusing. Thankfully, however, the book has a section that explains the meaning of such terms. There is also an appendix that explains how asteroids and comets are named.

Like NASA, the National Space Society is involved with planetary defense efforts. According to the NSS website, it is important to study asteroids because they “can make us extinct” and “can make us rich and provide homes for trillions of people.” It is worth pointing out that NSS supports NASA’s proposed Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, a space telescope that will search for asteroids and comets that could potentially harm our planet. While the book is primarily about the hazards of NEOs, there is one chapter about using asteroids as resources for human space activities. In the Acknowledgments section, the authors note that the NSS online library was used for accessing documents relevant to the book.

Credit must be given to the authors for writing such an impressively detailed and informative book. The book is clearly well-researched, and there are footnotes at the bottom of almost every page. Only rarely does the book get something wrong. For instance, on July 4, 2005, NASA had their own version of a fireworks display by crashing the Deep Impact spacecraft into comet Tempel 1. While one section of the book gets this right, a later section incorrectly claims this occurred in 2006. Also, in one chapter, NASA’s 2010 budget was claimed to be $18.7 billion. Two chapters later, this same budget was stated as $21 billion. Overwhelmingly, however, the book is very accurate.

A History of Near-Earth Objects Research is a 2022 release by NASA’s History Division. Over the last six decades, the space agency has published over 200 works. These books are a great resource for anyone wanting to understand NASA’s activities. A History of Near-Earth Objects Research is no exception. It makes a solid case that planetary defense should be a top priority for NASA.

© 2022 Casey Suire

Please use the NSS Amazon Link for all your book and other purchases. It helps NSS and does not cost you a cent! Bookmark this link for ALL your Amazon shopping!

NSS index of over 400 book reviews

Image: Visualizing the trajectories through the solar system of asteroids discovered by ADAM. Credits: B612 Asteroid Institute, University of Washington DiRAC Institute, and OpenSpace Project.

NSS of North Texas welcomed Joachim Moeyens, Graduate Student Fellow of the Asteroid Institute and Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology (DiRAC) Institute, who presented “The B612 Foundation and their Search for Asteroids.” The Asteroid Institute, a program of the private, non-profit B612 Foundation, uses the Asteroid Discovery, Analysis, and Mapping (ADAM) as their primary platform. Moeyens packed his presentation with dynamic observation images.

Moeyens highlighted the parameters of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time that will be conducted by the Rubin Observatory in the Chilean Andes and explained the science that this observatory aims to accomplish while continuously taking images for 10 years. He outlined the projection of a meaningful number of discoveries — at times exceeding 30,000 asteroids discovered nightly (majority are main belt asteroids). The timeline for reporting new observations of known solar system objects will be 60 seconds and newly discovered asteroids and comets will be 24 hours. Moeyens explained how an asteroid’s movement observed as “tracklets” can be used for their discovery and how Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery (THOR) transforms observations to simplify asteroid discovery with 97.2% accuracy and greater than a 2x increase in the recovery of known objects compared to tracklet-based algorithms. THOR was integrated into the ADAM platform and used to make the foundations of an asteroid discovery service.

Image: NASA’s NEO Surveyor spacecraft will identify and characterize asteroids and comets that threaten Earth. Credit: NASA/University of Arizona

The National Space Society applauds the support of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on their addition of $55M for NASA’s NEO Surveyor space telescope, a critical component in the defense of Earth from asteroids and comets.

On June 28, the House Committee on Appropriations passed a bill increasing funding for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope and directing NASA to launch the spacecraft no later than 2027. The appropriation of $94.9 million more than doubled the Administration’s greatly reduced request of $49.9 million, providing desperately needed funding to keep this program on track. The bill also directs NASA to plan to launch NEO Surveyor by 2027, one year later than originally scheduled, but sending a strong message to NASA to stay on schedule. Both houses of Congress must still pass the bill for it to take effect.

NEO Surveyor is a space-based telescope optimized to locate and characterize dangerous near-Earth asteroids and comets. When in position between the Earth and the Sun, NEO Surveyor’s infra-red sensor will be able to detect objects that are fainter and closer to the sun than Earth-based telescopes can. Should such an object impact Earth it could result in unprecedented destruction and threaten life regionally or globally across the Earth. Statistically, we are overdue for such an event.

NASA previously planned to launch NEO Surveyor as early as 2026, requiring $170 million in the coming fiscal year, but the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2023 included only about $50 million, a cut of 70%, and would have delayed the program, created unnecessary technical risk, and further stalled our ability to protect our planet from space-borne threats.

“We are grateful that the Committee made clear to NASA that NEO Surveyor needs to be a priority, and they provided enough funding to avert catastrophic damage to the project,” said Randy Gigante, NSS Policy Chair. “We’re also pleased to have worked with The Planetary Society to present a unified message to Congress. This shows what space advocates can achieve when we work together.” On June 16, NSS and The Planetary Society sent a joint letter to the House Appropriations Committee emphasizing the critical need to fund NEO Surveyor. Both organizations emphasize that the project offers cost-effective protection from asteroids.

“Within NASA’s budget, the total funding to build and launch NEO Surveyor is similar to what some flagship programs receive in one year,” said Jonathan Dagle, NSS Planetary Defense Program Manager. “For this relatively small investment, NEO Surveyor will accelerate the rate of NEO detection and achieve the Congressional mandate to locate 90% of large objects much more quickly than surface observations alone. It’s like buying the Earth an insurance policy against surprise impact.”

Potentially hazardous asteroids are objects 460 feet or larger in diameter that come close to Earth’s orbit, and can include both rocky asteroids or icy comets. There are over 29,000 such objects that have already been identified and tracked, and NEO Surveyor will help to find the rest of them. Meanwhile, NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft will impact a small asteroid in September, testing our ability to deflect dangerous objects once they are identified. But the essential first steps are to find them and track them to determine which ones pose a threat to Earth, which will be NEO Surveyor’s mission.

A large number of asteroids pass dangerously close to Earth’s orbit. Credit: NASA

The National Space Society, based in Washington, D.C., recently partnered with the Planetary Society, based in Pasadena, CA, to create a joint statement urging Congress to support NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) mission. The proposed $130 million cut in funding would seriously delay this planetary defense initiative and could ultimately jeopardize its success.

NEO Surveyor, which has been on the drawing board in one form or another since the mid-2000s, is an orbiting telescope designed to identify and pinpoint dangerous asteroids that threaten Earth. Near-Earth Asteroids in particular pose a grave risk to our planet—an impact of such an object wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Even a much smaller impactor could disrupt food supplies and agriculture for years, killing millions. Missions like NEO Surveyor are intended to help us protect ourselves from a similar event, one which is statistically overdue.

“Planetary Defense is critical to the future of humanity on this planet,” said Randy Gigante, the chair of the NSS Policy Committee. “NSS and the Planetary Society both understand the importance of funding the NEO Surveyor program to more quickly locate the large asteroids that could impact the Earth and have adequate time to deflect them. There is nothing more important than this initiative to protect our planet, and we are happy to join forces with the Planetary Society in this critical effort.”

This letter to Congress reflects the urgency the two largest member-supported space organizations in the world place on this mission. NEO Surveyor is not merely an interesting science program we can casually push off into the future—it’s a planetary defense strategy to keep Earth, and therefore humanity, safe from a potentially devastating asteroid impact.

If you would like to join us in support of NEO Surveyor, you can learn more about our efforts here, and you can make your voice heard in Congress via this form.

The joint letter from the NSS and the Planetary Society follows:

House Appropriations Committee

House Commerce, Justice, Science
Subcommittee of Appropriations

Senate Appropriations Committee

Senate Commerce, Justice, Science
Subcommittee of Appropriations

To the Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees:

We are writing the congressional appropriations committees to raise awareness of an important decision facing Congress in the FY 2023 budget cycle.

It is regarding NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, a small space telescope dedicated to the detection and characterization of comets and asteroids that could pose a danger to the Earth.

In FY 2022 Congress appropriated $143 million for this project, supporting a 2026 launch date. Once launched, the spacecraft is expected to discover tens of thousands of near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) at a rate and with a degree of detail unachievable by ground-based telescopes. It is the fastest method to satisfy the congressional mandate to detect 90% of NEOs 140 meters and larger. Absent NEO Surveyor, NASA will not achieve the congressional detection mandate for another 30 years.

Unfortunately, the President’s FY 2023 Budget Request for NASA proposes to slash more than $130 million from this project in mid-development, delaying its launch by at least two years and increasing its total cost to U.S. taxpayers by an unknown amount.

As leaders of the world’s two largest independent space outreach organizations, we are dismayed by NASA’s proposal to delay and disrupt this critical public safety mission.

We urge the committee to restore funding and augment NASA’s budget to provide at least $170 million to NEO Surveyor in FY 2023.

NEO Surveyor is possibly the most-endorsed mission of its kind. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine endorsed the need for a space-based NEO telescope in a dedicated 2019 report. More recently, the 2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey stated that “NASA should fully support the development, timely launch, and subsequent operation of NEO Surveyor.” Congress has repeatedly acted in a bipartisan manner to support this mission and NEO detection work. And polls consistently demonstrate that the public expects NASA to prioritize the search for hazardous NEOs.

We note that NASA has officially stated that the growing size of satellite mega-constellations will negatively impact its ability to search for NEOs from the ground. An in-space solution like NEO Surveyor is the only way to preserve our ability to search for potentially hazardous objects. This issue worsens with every new tranche of satellites launched into orbit.

As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we believe that the U.S. should heed its lessons and make common-sense investments in technologies that help us avoid (or properly prepare for) future catastrophes. We believe that augmenting NASA’s budget by at least $130 million to properly fund NEO Surveyor at $170 million (less than 1% of the agency’s total request) is a smart and cost-effective investment in our future, is aligned with overwhelming expert opinion, and is responsive to the directives of the people and their representatives in Congress.

Respectfully,

Bethany Ehlmann
President
The Planetary Society

Michelle Hanlon
President
National Space Society

By Jonathan Dagle, NSS Planetary Defense Program Manager

Asteroids have been striking the Earth for millions of years, and it is only a matter of “when” the next impact will occur, not “if.” Since the early 2000’s terrestrial observations have made considerable progress, locating nearly all the potentially hazardous asteroids more than 1 km across, about 1,000 in total, by 2010. These objects are so large that an Earth-impact would likely be an extinction-level event. However, smaller asteroids with diameters down to 140 meters, or smaller, still pose a regional danger, with potential destruction exceeding a handful of nuclear weapons. NASA estimates more than 25,000 of these asteroids exist, and as of January 2023, 60% of them have yet to be located. Since 2006 there has been interest a space-based infrared telescope to locate and track these hazardous objects, and in 2019, NASA approved the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM).

NSS has been working hard to avert catastrophic budget cuts to NEOSM that could jeopardize the mission’s success. Over the past two months, NSS members and leadership have met with offices of key Congressmen and the directors of relevant committees to oppose these cuts and restore the full funding for NEOSM, a space telescope designed to detect, track, and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids. It had been selected by NASA to proceed in 2019, more than ten years since inception, and was on track to launch as early as 2026.

But the President’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 would slash $100 million from NEOSM and delay launch by at least two years. The Administration and NASA followed up by requesting Congress take-back additional current-year funds that were only signed into law in March 2022. NSS believes the combined effect of these cuts could be disastrous for the NEO Surveyor Mission.

NEOSM is both too important and too small for these cuts to make sense. They appear to be NASA’s attempt to fix overruns in “flagship” planetary science missions like Europa Clipper and Mars Sample Return. But neither of these support a mission directed in law, as does NEOSM. And raiding the NEOSM “cookie jar,” won’t fix the flagship overruns—their overruns for just one year are about the size of the entire NEOSM mission! So breaking NEOSM doesn’t even begin to fix the flagship mission problem.

Unlike most planetary science missions, NEOSM provides a direct benefit to everyone on Earth. Congress understood this when they assigned the mission to NASA in 2005. More recently Dr. Phil Christensen, Co-Chair of 2023 Decadal Survey, called NEOSM “extremely important for society, for the world,” and said NEOSM is “crucial to the people here on the Earth. … We continue to urge NASA and Congress to ensure the mission is funded and launched in a timely fashion.”

To make matters worse, NASA has acknowledged that ground-based observations of near-Earth objects is getting more difficult because of the current and expected growth in low-Earth orbit “mega-constellations.” This concern is echoed in the 2023 Decadal Survey. Yet in the face of degraded observations, NASA’s answer is to delay NEOSM and even put the program at risk.

Unfortunately, NASA does not seem to view NEOSM as important. This may largely come down to bureaucracy. NEOSM belongs to the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, a small office in the Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate. Only one of those organizations doesn’t have “science” in its name. The Decadal Survey notwithstanding, NASA doesn’t view detecting potentially hazardous asteroids as “sciencey.” The Planetary Science Division wants to explore Mars and send probes to the gas-giants. Flashy programs get the most attention in the press and in budget meetings. Telescopes looking for dark asteroids don’t compete well in terms of prestige, excitement, or money.

The idea that NEOSM can be the piggy-bank for flagship cost overruns doesn’t add up. The entire cost of NEOSM is in the ballpark of $500 million. According to a NASA report in 2020, the costs of Mars Sample Return was expected to reach up to $4.4 billion, an increase of more than $1 billion over earlier estimates. And Europa Clipper received $600 million in one year, enough to fund the entire NEOSM program. It’s as if NASA doesn’t want to buy batteries for their smoke detectors, to help pay for a new car.

Sign up here for the NSS Campaign to Save NEOSM.

Sign up now because we need to take these actions before Congress marks up the FY23 budget on June 28th. Also, contact your Senators and Representatives directly. Tell them Asteroid Defense is important to you, and ask them to restore NEOSM’s funding (totaling $170 million in FY23) so it stays on schedule to launch as early as 2026.

Approximate path of asteroid 2019 OK past the Earth on 25 July 2019. Graphic produced by author from NASA-JPL Small-Body Database.

Inspired by the recent NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission launch, on Dec. 12, 2021, National Space Society of North Texas (NSS-NT) was proud to host Dr. Kelly Fast, NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program Manager, who presented “Finding Asteroids Before They Find Us: Planetary Defense at NASA.” Planetary defense has advanced with the specific tasking in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, establishment of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (2016), release of the White House’s National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan (2018), and the launch of the DART mission (impact on September 26, 2022). Dr. Fast’s office’s mission statement demonstrates their goal to “mitigate impact effects on human welfare.”

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is dedicated to both finding NEAs and envisioning options to defend the Earth from NEAs. Dr. Fast described NEOs, which are Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and comets, that orbit within 1.3 astronomical units (28-million miles) of the Sun. Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) is the subset of NEOs, which can come within 4.65-million miles of the Earth’s orbit and are larger than 140-meters in size. Should a PHO impact the Earth, regional or worse damage would occur.

For finding NEOs, the Catalina Sky Survey and the Pan-STARRS telescopes have been in the forefront, new telescopes in Chile and Africa are being built, and other telescopes add information to help calculate a NEOs orbit and determine where it will be in the future. Dr. Fast described a telescope with new capabilities for future finds, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor, currently in development.

After a candidate NEO is found, a determination of possible impact is made even before the determination that it is a new NEO discovery. In the case of the NEO being a credible threat, NASA would inform the White House and other government agencies through its notification policy protocol. NASA is also part of the International Asteroid Warning network which would inform the United Nations (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space [COPUOS]/ Office for Outer Space Affairs [OOSA]), who would inform their member states. Within eight hours of a real impact situation in 2018, Dr. Fast showed how the determination system was tested. More information can be found at nasa.gov/planetarydefense and by following NASA @AsteroidWatch on Twitter.

Planetary defense has long been an area of concern for the National Space Society.  From our February 2014 policy position paper, titled “Protecting Earth from Cosmic Impacts,” to our inclusion of planetary defense in our Capitol Hill Educational activities and direct advocacy for the NEOCam mission, we’ve long believed that NASA plays the crucial role in helping to protect our Earth from potentially hazardous NEOs.  As Administrator Bridenstine has remarked, part of the reason that the dinosaurs are no longer around is they didn’t have the ability to deal with asteroid impacts, while human beings do.

We look forward to working with NASA in the coming months and years to ensure that Earth is protected from these celestial bodies, as we secure our future in space.

NEOs are a significant threat. In 2013 a 20-meter object disintegrated over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The shock wave sent 1,500 people to seek medical treatment and damaged or destroyed many buildings. A NEO exploded over Tunguska, Siberia in 1908, leveling trees throughout an area the size of Washington, D.C. Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid about 10 km across struck the edge of the Yucatan Peninsula causing a massive extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

NSS, the Planetary Society, and other organizations have been actively urging full funding for the NEOCam mission to substantially reduce the threat. Addressing space advocacy concerns, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema raised the issue of funding NEOCam with Administrator Bridenstine during a March 13 hearing, The New Space Race: Ensuring U.S. Global Leadership on the Final Frontier.

Chair of the NSS Executive Committee Dale Skran recently explained: “NEOs that cross Earth’s orbit are particularly dangerous, and we have long campaigned for a mission capable of spotting and tracking them before they hit Earth. In fact, our Policy Committee issued a position paper in 2014 recommending that NEOCam be fully funded for that purpose.” (See https://nss.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/NSS-Position-Paper-Planetary-Defense-2014.pdf)

In 1998 Congress directed NASA to detect and track 90% of the NEOs 1 km or more in diameter. That goal has been reached. Subsequently, Congress directed NASA to detect and track 90% of the more difficult to find NEOs 140 meters in diameter or greater. This has yet to be accomplished. Amy Mainzer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has estimated that NEOCam could carry out that latter congressional mandate within ten years.

NSS Senior VP and Operating Officer Bruce Pittman further explained that “Currently, NEOCam has been funded for an extended Phase A study, which means that initial work is progressing, but it has not been approved for development.” Mainzer and NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson estimate the life-cycle cost of the NEOCam mission to be $500-600 million. NSS Executive Vice President Alfred Anzaldua commented, “That’s a substantial cost but lives are at stake. A 140-meter diameter asteroid or comet could kill millions of people. We need to find all the potentially hazardous NEOs so that we can deflect them away from Earth’s orbit.”

“OSIRIS-REx has NSS members really excited,” said Bruce Pittman, NSS Senior Vice President. “The craft will provide a complete map of the chemistry and mineralogy of a carbon based asteroid. Such asteroids will be critical for both the economic development and settlement of space. The TAGSAM sample collection device may provide a foundation for the development of future asteroid mining robots. Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, and his team at the University of Arizona have put together a really impressive mission.”

The probe is the third in NASA’s “New Frontiers” program of medium-sized exploration missions, and cost about $800 million in addition to launch and operations costs. The Lockheed Martin built spacecraft will journey to Bennu, a Near-Earth asteroid, arriving in August 2018. After two years of study, an innovative sample collection device, TAGSAM, will use jets of nitrogen gas to assist in collecting a minimum of 60 grams of samples.

OSIRIS-REx will leave Bennu in March 2021, and arrive back at Earth two and a half years later. The sample return canister is targeted toward a parachute landing at the Utah Test and Training Range on September 24, 2023. Although the primary mission objective is to return to Earth a pristine sample of a carbon rich asteroid for analysis, other objectives focus on resource identification, planetary security, and regolith exploration. Other “New Frontiers” missions include Juno, which is currently orbiting Jupiter, and New Horizons, which flew past Pluto in July 2015 and is now heading toward another object in the Kuiper Belt, with an expected arrival in January 2019.

Additionally, OSIRIS-REx will measure the effect of sunlight on the orbit of the asteroid, allowing the risk of an asteroid hitting the Earth to be better understood. “NSS advocates increased U.S. spending on protecting Earth from passing asteroids and comets,” said Dale Skran, NSS Executive Vice President. “OSIRIS-REx is a major step toward achieving the goals set forward in the NSS position paper on Planetary Defense.

Development of asteroid resources is fundamental to NSS’ vision of our future in space (see our Roadmap to Space Settlement Milestone 18 “Exploration, Utilization, and Settlement of Asteroids”) and yesterday’s events have brought that future materially closer.