Lassonde School of Engineering and the York University community will celebrate Lassonde’s contribution to the first-ever asteroid sample return mission with an event on campus Thursday, Sept. 8.
The OSIRIS-REx will launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an Atlas V 411 rocket on Sept. 8 at 7:05pm, and a celebration marking the mission will take place at York U starting at 6pm in the Bergeron Centre, Orientation Room 125.
Lassonde professor Mike Daly is the the lead Canadian researcher for the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu. His team has built the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA), the most sophisticated laser ever to go to an asteroid. The laser was delivered to NASA earlier in the year and will now launch into space to help measure the asteroid and guide the spacecraft.
It will travel to Bennu (asteroid 1999RQ36), a carbonaceous asteroid whose regolith may record the earliest history of our solar system.
OLA will conduct high-precision scans of the asteroid and identify a suitable location to extract samples.
Join Lassonde students, faculty, alumni and staff to participate in this historic event. RSVPs are requested.