Astrobio Shorts: OSIRIS-REx & the Origin of Life (Trailer)

A historic moment is on the horizon for NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx. On Oct. 20, 2022, the spacecraft will descend to asteroid Bennu’s surface, touch down for a few seconds and collect a sample of the asteroid’s rocks and dust, which will be returned to Earth for study. NASA astrobiologists Dr. Jason Dworkin and Dr. Scott Sandford explain the importance of the OSIRIS-REx mission in the quest to understand the role that asteroids and other small bodies play in the origins of life on Earth. #ToBennuAndBack asteroidmission.org astrobiology.nasa.gov Featuring Dr. Jason Dworkin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) Dr. Scott Sandford (NASA Ames Research Center) Video & images are courtesy of NASA and its affiliates. Music by Bensound.com (License certificate #1999293) Directed & Edited by Mike Toillion About OSIRIS-REx: NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth, addressing multiple NASA Solar System Exploration objectives. OSIRIS-REx launched from Cape Canaveral on September 8, 2016. OSIRIS-REx completed its 1.2 billion-mile journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu on December 3, 2018. On October 20th, 2020, it will make its first attempt to capture a sample of the asteroid's regolith. Asteroids are the leftover debris from the solar system formation process that began over four billion years ago, and they can teach us a lot about the history of the Sun and planets. Bennu may contain the molecular precursors to the origin of life and the Earth’s oceans. Bennu is also a potentially hazardous asteroid that has a relatively high probability of impacting the Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx will determine Bennu’s physical and chemical properties, which could be critical for developing an impact mitigation mission in the future.