TIME CAPSULE: Imagine coming up with an idea, watching that idea be launched into space on a spacecraft, then watching that spacecraft bring your idea back to Earth several years later for the world to see.
NASA is collecting thoughts from citizens for just that purpose. We thought it was too fun not to share with our readers.
According to a news release from the agency, “NASA is inviting the worldwide public to submit short messages and images on social media that could be placed in a time capsule aboard a spacecraft launching to an asteroid in 2016.
“Called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), the spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2019, collect a sample and return the cache in a capsule to Earth in 2023 for detailed study. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the 1,760-foot (500-meter)-wide asteroid and return a minimum of 2 ounces (60 grams) of its surface material.”
OSIRIS-REX sounds vaguely dinosaur-like, too, which only increases its appeal.
NASA is asking submissions be specifically “about solar exploration in 2014 and predictions for space exploration activities in 2023. The mission team will choose 50 tweets and 50 images to be placed in the capsule.”
Messages can be submitted through Sept. 30.
OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta had this to add in the release, “Our progress in space exploration has been nothing short of amazing. I look forward to the public taking their best guess at what the next 10 years hold and then comparing their predictions with actual missions in development in 2023.”
When the ship returns in 2023, the messages will be posted online.
According to NASA, the “mission is focused on finding answers to basic questions about the composition of the very early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made life possible on Earth.” Additionally, the mission’s findings will shared with NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) — “a first-ever mission to identify, capture and redirect a near-Earth asteroid to a stable orbit around the moon.”
We wonder, would that be the same as creating a moon for the Moon?
Details on how to submit messages can be found at http://www.asteroidmission.org/timecapsule.
