{"id":72696,"date":"2017-12-22T15:01:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T01:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=72696"},"modified":"2020-05-08T11:58:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T21:58:18","slug":"david-trang-nasa-asteroid-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/12\/22\/david-trang-nasa-asteroid-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> researcher named participating scientist for NASA<\/abbr> asteroid mission"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
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David Trang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Trang<\/strong> has been selected as a participating scientist<\/a> on NASA<\/abbr>‘s first asteroid sample return mission, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trang is a postdoctoral associate at the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute for Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a participating scientist, Trang will become a science team member during his three-year tenure with the mission.<\/p>\n

The goal of OSIRIS-Rex<\/abbr> is to explore Bennu, an asteroid approximately 1,600 feet in diameter orbiting in the solar system. It will take samples of the asteroid and return them to Earth.<\/p>\n

Trang’s role is to help with preliminary survey maps of Bennu, which has been physically and chemically altered by exposure to the space environment, which is known as “space weathering.”<\/p>\n

“Being a part of this mission is very exciting because I get to help explore a planetary body within our solar system that we have never visited before,” said Trang.<\/p>\n

“This is scientifically significant to me because I get to try to understand how space weathering affects asteroids, which is still quite an enigma. Also, this opportunity to be part of a NASA<\/abbr> mission is significant for me personally, because it’s been an honor and a dream of mine since I was a kid.”<\/p>\n

OSIRIS-REx<\/abbr> launched on September 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The return sample of a primitive asteroid could help scientists understand the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft will arrive at Bennu in August 2018 and begin surveying the surface.<\/p>\n

—By Marcie Grabowski<\/em><\/p>\n

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Artist’s concept of NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s OSIRIS-REx<\/abbr> spacecraft. Credit: NASA<\/abbr>‘s Goddard Space Flight Center\/CIL<\/abbr>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post-doctoral associate David Trang will become a science team member during his three-year tenure with the mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,170,92,9],"class_list":["post-72696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-hawaii-institute-of-geophysics-and-planetology","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72696"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117868,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72696\/revisions\/117868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}