OSIRIS-REx no more: UArizona officials announce new name and mission for asteroid-exploring spacecraft
PHOENIX - It's a spacecraft that was on a mission to explore an asteroid, and send some samples from the asteroid back to Earth.
The sample it collected from Bennu returned to Earth in September, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the line for the OSIRIS-REx mission.
On Oct. 31, officials with the University of Arizona said the mission has been extended by NASA, with the new name OSIRIS-APEX. The name stands for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-APophis EXplorer."
The name ‘Apophis’ may be familiar to some people. That's because at one point in recent years, some believe the asteroid could to pose a threat to humanity.
According to a 2021 story on Apophis, some believe that flyby rocks from the asteroid could impact Earth by 2068. In its statement, UArizona officials said when the asteroid was first discovered, ther was a scare that it was going to impact Earth in 2029.
The 2029 impact risk, according to UArizona officials, has been ruled out, and NASA scientists have also ruled out any impact risk for 2068 and long after.
"A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years," said Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
According to NASA's website, Apophis was discovered at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona in 2004, and it is set to pass less than 23,239 miles from the Earth surface in April 2029, placing it just outside the distance of some satellites.
Mission began in September
(Photo Courtesy: University of Arizona)
In the statement, UArizona officials said the new mission began almost right after the Bennu sample was returned to Earth.
"20 minutes after dropping the sample high above Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 24, the spacecraft fired its thrusters to put it on course to rendezvous with Apophis in 5½ years – just after Apophis makes its own close approach to Earth," read a portion of the statement.
The spacecraft's cameras, according to the statement, will start collecting data by Apr. 2, 2029, as the spacecraft approaches the asteroid.
"The spacecraft will catch up to the asteroid on April 13, 2029, as the asteroid wizzes 20,000 miles above Earth's surface. Scientists will then spend the next 18 months studying the asteroid in detail. They'll also disturb the material on the surface with the spacecraft to reveal what lies just beneath," read a portion of the statement.
Other targets, according to UArizona officials, were considered for the spacecraft after the OSIRIS-REx mission, including Venus. However, Apophis was ultimately chosen as the target for the new mission because it was the only object that the spacecraft could closely rendezvous with.