The OSIRIS-Rex mission is launching to asteroid Bennu in 2016, and you can virtually go along! The team is sending a time capsule full of images and statements about our exploration of the Solar System to be opened when the spacecraft resumes with a piece of Bennu in 2023. You can join the time capsule with your name or short message with the Twitter or Instagram hashtag #AsteroidMission. Think about where we are now and where you think we’ll be nine years from now when a pristine piece of asteroid is returned to us for study. Check out the website http://asteroidmission.org/timecapsule for more information.

You can still submit your name, as well, to the asteroid Bennu at http://planetary.org/bennu for the “Messages to Bennu” campaign.

Be sure to keep up with the mission on Instagram and Twitter as the launch gets closer! And while we wait, you can still explore asteroid Vesta from Dawn’s data with AsteroidMappers right here on CosmoQuest.