NASA asteroid mission to collect building blocks of life

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

NASA asteroid mission to collect building blocks of life
by Jane M. Wolkowicz
May 25, 2011

NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to an asteroid and fit it with a giant robotic arm to pluck samples that they hope will better explain the origins of species.

NASA's Planetary Science Division announced the plans Wednesday for the mission that launches in 2016.

The OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth, said Jim Green, director for NASA's Planetary Science Division Mission in Washington, D.C.

“These asteroids are time capsules from billions of years ago,” said Michael Drake, the mission’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Certainly things like amino acids that we expect to find in space remain essentially untouched by human hands and will be a pristine sample of what’s out there.”




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