It may see like a crossing between a mylar balloon , a suitcase , and an honest-to-goodness - schooling petrol mask , but it ’s actually a highly sophisticated sensing instrument . And it ’s going to tell us whether there ’s water on an asteroid or not .
This isNASA ’s OSIRIS - REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer ( OVIRS ) and it ’s going to be part of our very first tripto bring a picayune something back from an asteroid . Though the OSIRIS - king mission to Asteroid Bennu will be collecting sample , OVIRS will in reality do its body of work by breaking down the sparkle coming off of the asteroid . If it spots the correct wavelength , that will intend that there is indeed water up there , as some scientists suspect .
The trip to Bennu is n’t slate to plunge until 2016 , then it ’ll take it two years to achieve the asteroid , and it wo n’t be making its way back to us until a full seven twelvemonth later in 2023 . When it does though , it should have something interesting to tell us .
Sail on , glazed space suitcase !
figure of speech : NASA Goddard / Bill Hrybyk .
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