The spacecraft would return with the samples in 2023(Foto: Tomada de NASA )
Wednesday May 25, 2011 Redacción | El Universal 22:15
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will send a spacecraft to an asteroid that will bring samples to Earth in 2016.
The space agency reported that the use of a robotic arm will ship samples of the asteroid 1999 RQ36 that would help better explain the formation of our solar system and how life began.
The mission called SIRIS-Rex (Spectra Interpretation Origins regolith Resource Identification Security Explorer) is the first U.S. mission to bring asteroid samples to Earth.
The unmanned spacecraft on the asteroid did not stay overnight, but close enough to extend the robot arm and take surface samples.
The return of the capsule with the fragments would occur seven years later (in 2023). Several pieces of asteroids, known as meteorites, and fall off constantly on fire when in contact with the Earth's atmosphere.
The asteroid 1999 RQ36 is a size of about five football fields (one thousand 900 feet in diameter) and is rich in coal, a key element in organic molecules necessary for life.
Organic molecules have been found in samples of meteorites and comets, indicating that some of the ingredients of life can be created in space, and scientists want to know if they are also present in the target asteroid.
The unmanned spacecraft on the asteroid did not stay overnight, but close enough to extend the robot arm and take surface samples.
The return of the capsule with the fragments would occur seven years later (in 2023). Several pieces of asteroids, known as meteorites, and fall off constantly on fire when in contact with the Earth's atmosphere.
The asteroid 1999 RQ36 is a size of about five football fields (one thousand 900 feet in diameter) and is rich in coal, a key element in organic molecules necessary for life.
Organic molecules have been found in samples of meteorites and comets, indicating that some of the ingredients of life can be created in space, and scientists want to know if they are also present in the target asteroid.
The NASA administrator, Charlie Bolden, said the mission is a step toward the goal set by President Barack Obama, to explore space at longer distances.
"Robotic missions like this will pave the way for future manned space missions to an asteroid, and other deep space destinations, " he said.
The mission will cost about one billion dollars.
"Robotic missions like this will pave the way for future manned space missions to an asteroid, and other deep space destinations, " he said.
The mission will cost about one billion dollars.
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