OSIRIS-REx Mission Objectives

(Per NASA)

1. Return and analyze a sample of pristine carbonaceous asteroid regolith in an amount sufficient to study the nature, history, and distribution of its constituent minerals and organic material.

2. Map the global properties, chemistry, and mineralogy of a primitive carbonaceous asteroid to characterize its geologic and dynamic history and provide context for the returned samples.

3. Document the texture, morphology, geochemistry, and spectral properties of the regolith at the sampling site in situ at scales down to the sub-centimeter.

4. Measure the Yarkovsky effect on a potentially hazardous asteroid and constrain the asteroid properties that contribute to this effect.

5. Characterize the integrated global properties of a primitive carbonaceous asteroid to allow for direct comparison with ground-based telescopic data of the entire asteroid population