Posted on 09/08/2016 11:57:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A U.S. space probe was cleared for launch on Thursday to collect and return samples from an asteroid in hopes of learning more about the origins of life on Earth and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system, NASA said on Tuesday.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to dispatch the robot explorer Osiris-Rex on a seven-year mission.
United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.
Osiris-Rex is headed to a 1,640-foot (500-meter) wide asteroid named Bennu, which circles the sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. Scientists estimate there is a one-in-800 chance that Bennu might actually hit Earth 166 years from now.
Heating from the sun gently pushes the asteroid, and charting its path is among the goals of the $1 billion mission. The U.S. space agency also hopes Osiris-Rex will demonstrate the advanced imaging and mapping techniques needed for future science missions and for upcoming commercial asteroid-mining expeditions.
Osiris-Rex is expected to reach Bennu in August 2018 and begin a two-year study of its physical features and chemical composition. The solar-powered spacecraft will then fly to Bennu's surface and extend a robot arm to collect at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of what scientists hope will be carbon-rich material.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft which will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth for study is seen in an undated NASA artist rendering. NASA/Handout via Reuters
It’s rumoured to be rich in Clintonium,, impervious to media coverage. ;-)
save money read Genesis!
Asteroid Bennu getting first visitor in billions of years
https://www.yahoo.com/news/asteroid-bennu-getting-first-visitor-billions-years-181049507.html
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid that may hold the key to life is getting its first visitor in billions of years.
Asteroid Bennu, a black roundish rock taller than the Empire State Building, is the intended target of a NASA spacecraft set to blast off Thursday night. Not only will the robotic probe named Osiris-Rex fly to this ancient asteroid, it will scout it out for two years before scooping up some gravel and dust, and deliver the samples back to Earth.
All told, the mission will take seven years, from launch to sample return.
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Save millions of our taxpayer dollars. You want to know the answers to your questions: Pick up a Bible and read the frst three chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. God will tell you precisely what He did and how He did it.
So your giving the mission a thumbs down?
The headline assumes that God doesn’t exist, that Scripture is wrong. That is the logical conclusion based on a worldview in which God is absent or non-existent or irrelevant.
This scientific exploration is extremely valuable. Lots of amazing data will come from it. But it won’t tell us a thing about “the origins of life on earth.”
Don’t probe asteroids. They may go away by themselves. My experience, anyway.
Can’t even sit on the toilet some days.
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