jkidd08

We will be using a device called TAGSAM, Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism. The end of this device is similar to a large car air filter. Gaseous nitrogen is blasted down to "excite" or shake up the surface material, which should get stuck in the TAGSAM head. Any materials smaller than 3 cm across should be stuck. This will then be placed in the Sample Return Capsule for return to Earth.

He's pretty chill.

I would say that it's a tie between OSIRIS-REx and MESSENGER, in my opinion.

Right now is a pretty exciting time for asteroid exploration. The Europeans have the Rosetta mission and America has the Dawn mission currently exploring asteroids (non sample return missions). Currently Dawn is on its way to Ceres, the largest known asteroid in our solar system. Currently, we're working on the OSIRIS-REx mission that will arrive at Bennu in 2018 and the Japanese are currently working on Hayabusa 2, a mission that will collect a sample from asteroid 1999 JU3 (it'll get a simpler name before long!) So right now space exploration agencies around the world are working on going out to these asteroids to find out what precisely is out there. We hope to learn more about sample collection techniques as well as how to safely fly around these bodies, among other goals.

Currently, there are two companies in America that I know of that are looking into asteroid mining: Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. It's hard to say when exactly we'll be able to mine an asteroid in the sense that science fiction authors imagined, but we are definitely working towards that future.

The problem with asteroid deflection is there's still a lot about asteroids we don't quite understand well enough to make an informed decision. A lot of the uncertainty comes into the composition of the particular asteroid: a solid rock versus a rubble pile or a bunch of small rocks gravitationally bound together as this would effect how the asteroid absorbs energy.

Additionally, there is uncertainty in what we call the Yarkovski Effect. This is how the an asteroid absorbs energy from the Sun in the dawn and releases it back into space during the dusk.

These are the types of questions we hope to answer with the OSIRIS-REx mission, allowing scientists and engineers to better informed decisions on how to mitigate impact of a particular asteroid.