NASA is weeks away from launching an asteroid-thumping spacecraft - CNET

NASA hopes to launch a spacecraft next month that will essentially chest-bump an asteroid and swipe a sample of space rock to bring back to Earth for study in the process.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is about the size of a small bus when its solar arrays are deployed. Right now, the plan is to launch it from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 411 rocket as soon as September 8 at 7:05 p.m. ET. It's scheduled to reach the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu at some point in 2018.

The craft's epic acronym name stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer, which explains what NASA hopes it will do. Those goals include retuing and analyzing a sample, mapping the asteroid and its chemical and mineral makeup and taking a close look at the outermost layer, called regolith.

The security aspect involves measuring the effect of sunlight on the orbit of a small asteroid (called the Yarkovsky effect) to see if it might yield any useful information for gently nudging possibly dangerous asteroids in a way that might prevent a collision with Earth.

Over the course of about five years between 2018 and 2023, the plan is for the spacecraft to arrive at Bennu and take a close look at it without touching it just yet, then orbit and map it before approaching and contacting the asteroid for just about five seconds to take a sample of around 60 grams that will then be brought back to Earth for study.