[AstroNet] Fw: NASA: Amateur Astronomers Wanted to Target Asteroids

[Case Rijsdijk]

This may be of interest.

Kind regards

Case

> Text & Images:
> http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/osiris-rex-update.html
>
> NASA MISSION WANTS AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS TO TARGET ASTEROIDS
>
> A new NASA outreach project will enlist the help of amateur astronomers to
> discover near-Earth objects (NEOs) and study their characteristics. NEOs
> are asteroids with orbits that occasionally bring them close to the Earth.
>
> Starting today, a new citizen science project called “Target Asteroids!”
> will support NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource 
> Identification
> Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission objectives to improve
> basic scientific understanding of NEOs. OSIRIS-Rex is scheduled for launch
> in 2016 and will study material from an asteroid.
>
> Amateur astronomers will help better characterize the population of NEOs,
> including their position, motion, rotation and changes in the intensity of
> light they emit. Professional astronomers will use this information to
> refine theoretical models of asteroids, improving their understanding 
> about
> asteroids similar to the one OSIRIS-Rex will encounter in 2019, designated
> 1999 RQ36.
>
> OSIRIS-Rex will map the asteroid’s global properties, measure
> non-gravitational forces and provide observations that can be compared 
> with
> data obtained by telescope observations from Earth. In 2023, OSIRIS-REx
> will return back to Earth at least 2.11 ounces (60 grams) of surface
> material from the asteroid.
>
> Target Asteroids! data will be useful for comparisons with actual mission
> data. The project team plans to expand participants in 2014 to students 
> and
> teachers.
>
> “Although few amateur astronomers have the capability to observe 1999 RQ36
> itself, they do have the capability to observe other targets,” said Jason
> Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight 
> Center
> in Greenbelt, Md.
>
> Previous observations indicate 1999 RQ36 is made of primitive materials.
> OSIRIS-REx will supply a wealth of information about the asteroid’s
> composition and structure. Data also will provide new insights into the
> nature of the early solar system and its evolution, orbits of NEOs and
> their impact risks, and the building blocks that led to life on Earth.
>
> Amateur astronomers long have provided NEO tracking observations in 
> support
> of NASA’s NEO Observation Program. A better understanding of NEOs is a
> critically important precursor in the selection and targeting of future
> asteroid missions.
>
> “For well over 10 years, amateurs have been important contributors in the
> refinement of orbits for newly discovered near-Earth objects,” said Edward
> Beshore, deputy principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission at the
> University of Arizona in Tucson.
>
> Contacts:
> Dwayne Brown
> NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
> +1 202-358-1726
> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
>
> Nancy Neal Jones
> Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
> +1 301-286-0039
> nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov
>
> NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will provide overall
> mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance
> for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta is the mission’s principal investigator at
> the University of Arizona. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will
> build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New
> Frontiers Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, 
> Ala.,
> manages New Frontiers for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in
> Washington.
>
> More information on Target Asteroids! and OSIRIS-REx:
> http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu