Winnipeg geologist to help NASA asteroid mission find ideal sampling spots

A Winnipeg geologisthas set his sights on an asteroid that could hold answers about the origins of our solar system and life on Earth.

Ed Cloutis, a professor of geography at the University of Winnipeg,is part of ateam that will pick the right spot for NASA's OSIRIS-REx unmanned spacecraft to collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu to bring back to Earth.

"It's about 500 metres across, so kind of fromCBC'sstudiosout to [about]Portage Avenue. So it's big but not huge;you could easily walk around it in less than an hour,"Cloutissaid of the asteroid duringan interview Tuesday.

"It's a big space rock but not a huge space rock."

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The OSIRIS-REx, or the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer,will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida as early as Thursday, embarking on a seven-year round-tripjourney to maptheasteroid and ultimately "vacuum"particles from its surface.

"It is going to do what we call a 'touch and go'manoeuvre,so it's not going to land like the Rosetta lander tried to land on the comet. It's going to touch down on the asteroid kind ofvacuum or Hoover up some material and then depart the asteroid with the sample,"Cloutisexplained.

Some of what is collected from Bennu researchers are aiming for at least 57 grams is expected to be studied in Canadian laboratories once the spacecraft returns to Earth in the year 2023, and Cloutis said he hopes to get his hands on some of that material.

Cloutissaid he expects to see a "mix of dust and sand-sized particles and probably pebbles," adding that the sampling instrument on board the spacecraft can onlycollect particles smaller than two centimetres in size.

A year in orbit

OSIRIS-RExwill spend about a year or 1years in orbit, mapping the surface of the asteroid, beforeCloutisand therest of the team selectideal locations for the spacecraft to collect a sample.

"The plan is to sort of map it in exquisite detail, use a variety of instruments that are on the spacecraft, to try to determine how geologically homogeneousor heterogeneous it is," he said.

"We're going to map the asteroid, try to identify areas that can be sampled, and then we're going toprioritizethose areas based on what we call the science value."

Cloutissaid the samples fromBennucould help researchers address the origins of the solar system and where theEarth may have gotten its water.

"This asteroid's of interest to us because it's a class of asteroid called the carbonaceouschondrite, which means it contains organic molecules and a lot of carbon," he said.

"Our interest in this class of asteroids is that they probably have different kinds of organic molecules, and so this can give us some insights into the kind of materials that might have fallen onto the Earth back in the day that may have helped life arise on the Earth."

The mission marks the first time Canada is participating in an international mission to bring an asteroid sample to Earth. In addition to the University of Winnipeg, researchers from York University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia are taking part.