Do you have a penchant for prophecy? Do your officemates hang on every word when you dole out the divination? Is your casting Kung Fu strong? Then maybe this will be an easy DIY for you.
The folks at OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer) are asking for the public to come forecast the future of Solar System exploration–or submit an image. The catch? Well it looks like your statement from the realm of second-sight can only be 140 characters long. That’s right–Twitter is the place to post your revelation to the world (Instagram, for posting an image).
Just use the #AsteroidMission to get your prediction posted to the proper people. What happens after that? Well, the OSIRIS-REx team takes your twitter, along with other augury submissions (they are all frauds, of course–but you’re the real deal), and seal it in with selected images in a time capsule. The time capsule will be put aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, where it will travel with the spacecraft into space, visit an asteroid named Bennu, then come back with samples from the asteroid. The team explains why Bennu is important to them on this page.
Which is a fairly short description of the OSIRIS-REx mission. OSIRIS-REx is projected to be launched in September 2016 and after traveling to and staying with Bennu, will eventually return to Earth in 2023. Not only will the Bennu asteroid samples be examined, but so will your 140 character prognostication. And of course you’ll be right. Plus, your prophecy will have traveled through the Solar System.
Go ahead then. Predict the future of space exploration in our Solar System. Sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut in the forest.
One more thing–the deadline for submitting your image or prediction is 30 September. So you do have a few weeks to get some detail in the twitter of yours.
The Mad Spaceball 