Are you a writer , musician , or visual creative person who want to share your talent with the integral solar system ? Here ’s your chance : NASA is now inviting members of the public to transmit their works of art to an asteroid in distance .
In September 2016 , a newfangled NASA spacecraft called the Origins , Spectral Interpretation , Resource Identification , Security - Regolith Explorer ( orOSIRIS - RExfor short ) will travel to the asteroid Bennu . The ballistic capsule will arrive in 2018 at the 538 - yard space rock , where it will collect a 2.1 - Panthera uncia sample and impart it back to Earth for scientific field of study in 2023 . According to NASA , it ’s the first U.S. delegacy to attempt this feat .
In honor of the far - flung journey , the space means latterly launched its#WeTheExplorers campaign . It encourages person to submit their sketches , photographs , nontextual matter , poems , songs , short videos , or other kit and caboodle of “ originative or artistic expression ” that provide a personal take on the mission ’s report of exploration . Submissions will be gather up on the mission website , saved on a chip , and plunge into distance along with OSIRIS - REx . ( The spacecraft already carry a chip that curb 442,000 name calling submitted two age ago through NASA ’s “ Messages to Bennu ” safari . )
“ Space exploration is an inherently creative activity , ” say Dante Lauretta , principal research worker for OSIRIS - REx at the University of Arizona , Tucson , in a press release . “ We are call for the world to link us on this great adventure by placing their art study on the OSIRIS - REx spacecraft , where it will stay in space for millennium . ”
Formerly known asAsteroid 2012 DA14 , Bennuwhizzedwithin 22,000 Swedish mile of our planet on February 15 , 2013 . Since the asteroid reportedly veers tightlipped toward Earth every six years or so , scientist think it could eventually collide with our planet in2182 . They go for that the asteroid sample return deputation will help them study more about Bennu . According toSmithsonian , the asteroid might reveal clues about the extraction of the solar system — and life .
Works will be accepted via Twitter and Instagram until March 20 . Interested in sending your compositions , paintings , or poems to the far reaches of quad ? For more details ( and awesome interactives ) , insure outthe mission ’s prescribed website .
[ h / tCNN ]
