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UA in Running for New NASA Mission

by University Communications

ASA has chosen a planetary mission 2016 and will return NASA’s first asteroid to conduct science-intensive planetary
Ninvolving a team from the University sample to Earth in 2023. investigations. OSIRIS-REx, led by the UA, is
of Arizona as one of two finalists to be LPL associate professor Tom Zega is a the third New Frontiers mission.
the next robotic solar system explorer. co-investigator on the CAESAR mission and If the mission is ultimately chosen, the
The proposed mission, named CAESAR, will analyze the comet sample material once CAESAR spacecraft could launch by 2025
for Comet Astrobiology Exploration it is back on Earth. Zega, a collaborator on and return to Earth in 2038. NASA intends to
Sample Return, seeks to return a sample the OSIRIS-REx mission, will be one of the make the final mission selection in summer
from a comet to determine its origin and first scientists to analyze samples from the 2019.
history. asteroid Bennu. The other finalist mission, Dragonfly,
UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory “We are excited to bring the UA’s is led by LPL alumna Elizabeth Turtle, who
professor Dante Lauretta is CAESAR’s leadership in sample science innovation to earned her doctorate in planetary science
mission sample scientist, responsible the challenges posed by the CAESAR mission from the UA in 1998 and then continued at the
for leading the analysis of the returned and its target comet,” Lauretta says. “The LPL as a postdoctoral fellow and as research
comet sample. He also is tasked with work done on CAESAR will ensure that the faculty before joining the Johns Hopkins
advising on all aspects of the mission’s UA continues to stand at the forefront of University Applied Physics Laboratory in
design that influence the scientific value extraterrestrial sample analysis for the next Laurel, Maryland.
and integrity of the sample. Lauretta 20 years.”
is the principal investigator of NASA’s If selected, CAESAR would be the fourth
OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission in NASA’s $1 billion New Frontiers
mission, which launched in September program, which sends robotic spacecraft

Dante Lauretta / Chris Richards photo

10 ARIZONA ALUMNI MAGAZINE