ARLA/CLUSTER: NASA convida público para enviar trabalhos artisticos a um asteróide

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

NASA invites public to send artwork to an asteroid

NASA is calling all space enthusiasts to send their artistic endeavors
on a journey aboard NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource
Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft.
This will be the first U.S. mission to collect a sample of an asteroid
and return it to Earth for study.

OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in September and travel to the
asteroid Bennu. The #WeTheExplorers campaign invites the public to
take part in this mission by expressing, through art, how the
mission’s spirit of exploration is reflected in their own lives.

Submitted works of art will be saved on a chip on the spacecraft.
The spacecraft already carries a chip with more than 442,000 names
submitted through the 2014 “Messages to Bennu” campaign.

“The development of the spacecraft and instruments has been a hugely
creative process, where ultimately the canvas is the machined metal
and composites preparing for launch in September,” said Jason Dworkin,
OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland. “It is fitting that this endeavor can inspire the
public to express their creativity to be carried by OSIRIS-REx into
space.”

A submission may take the form of a sketch, photograph, graphic, poem,
song, short video or other creative or artistic expression that
reflects what it means to be an explorer. Submissions will be accepted
via Twitter and Instagram until March 20. For details on how to
include your submission on the mission to Bennu, go to:
http://www.asteroidmission.org/WeTheExplorers

“Space exploration is an inherently creative activity,” said Dante
Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of
Arizona, Tucson. “We are inviting the world to join us on this great
adventure by placing their art work on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft,
where it will stay in space for millennia.”

The spacecraft will voyage to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to collect
a sample of at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) and return it to Earth for
study. Scientists expect Bennu may hold clues to the origin of the
solar system and the source of the water and organic molecules that
may have made their way to Earth.

Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering and
safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. The University of
Arizona, Tucson leads the science team and observation planning and
processing. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is building the
spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers
Program.  NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
manages New Frontiers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington.

For more information on OSIRIS-Rex, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex