Clovis Points are blades that had been crafted by North America’s earliest communities. They are very distinctive in that they tend to be chipped from jasper, chert, and other fine brittle stones and have a lance-shaped tip and sharp edges.
David Kilby made the artistic rendition of the Clovis Points, then Dr. Bradford Hamann created the digital rendition, and it was submitted by Sean Shepherd and Matt Hillsman to NASA.
Their written proposal for why it should get a seat on the probe stated, “The Clovis Point directly relates to the spirit of exploration of the New World in Prehistoric Times, over 10,000 years ago.”
NASA invited the public to send artwork to the asteroid through their #WeTheExplorers campaign. Submitted artwork will be saved on a chip on the spacecraft.
Submissions were any creative form or artistic expression that reflects what it means to be an explorer. Submissions were accepted through Twitter and Instagram until March 20.
NASA could not guarantee that all artwork would be onboard because the drive might reach capacity.
This will be the first mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth to study.
Bennu is more than just the first sample, it has also been declared a potential threat to humanity because it has the possibility of colliding with Earth in around 170 years.
It is about 1,837 feet (560 meters) in diameter, and could cause devastation were it to hit. The greatest risk will be in 2181, with a 1/1,000 chance of impact.
OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer and is scheduled to launch in September 2016. It will be visiting Bennu because it is believed to have pristine samples of some of the earliest materials that formed our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
It has been predicted that the spacecraft will reach the asteroid in 2018, and return home in 2023.
Bennu was formed from the rubble of a violent collision, and has since then hurled through space for millions of years. This particular kind of asteroid is considered a “rubble pile” because it is a loosely bound collection of rocks, boulders and dust.
According to Edward Beshore of the University of Arizona, Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA's asteroid-sample-return mission OSIRIS-REx, Bennu will be able to tell us more about where our solar system came from and how it evolved.
“Like the detectives in a crime show episode, we'll examine bits of evidence from Bennu to understand more completely the story of the solar system, which is ultimately the story of our origin," said Beshore in an article by NASA .
This asteroid also may potentially have organic material from a younger solar system. If NASA is able to collect any organic material on Bennu it will allow scientists to get an inventory of materials that may be present at the beginning of a solar system and their role in the origin of life.
For more information about ENMU’s contribution, contact Matt Hillsman at 575.562.0916.
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All information about Bennu and OSIRIS-REx gathered from NASA.gov
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/bennus-journey
