Video: Asteroid-sampling spacecraft ready for launch

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will be boosted into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. The U.S.'s first mission to sample an asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Learn how this pioneering spacecraft and the Atlas V were readied for flight.

Video: Student scientists help NASA build spacecraft to explore asteroid

College students in Boston are getting the chance to help NASA explore an asteroid. These student scientists have built an instrument called REXIS, which will fly on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that is scheduled to launch later this year. This video puts a spotlight on a group of these students and their experience on the REXIS project.

Xtronaut: The game of solar system exploration

A University of Arizona professor has combined his expertise in space mission planning and technology with his passion for strategy gaming to create Xtronaut: The Game of Solar System Exploration.
 
The Xtronaut game, developed by Professor Dante Lauretta, captures the various challenges and excitement of planning a space mission. Lauretta co-founded Xtronaut Enterprises with space entrepreneur Michael Lyon to increase awareness of NASA's asteroid sample return mission named OSIRIS-REx.

In 2011, NASA selected the asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx – a $1 billion mission to send a robotic spacecraft to an asteroid named "Bennu", collect a sample of the asteroid, and return to Earth. Unfortunately, the education outreach budget for OSIRIS-REx was eliminated in 2013. In response, mission leader Dante Lauretta and space entrepreneur Michael Lyon founded Xtronaut Enterprises to develop innovative activities associated with space exploration.

Xtronaut gives two to four players ages seven and up the chance to develop space missions and explore the solar system. The game is based on real planetary missions and rocket science. It also contains elements of politics and strategy that are inspired by the real-life situations that space missions face. The game has been tested with players that range from elementary school students to graduate students in planetary sciences and mission scientists.