i five all around at the mission control center as nasa spacecraft cyrus rex moved into position alongside the asteroid benu one hundred and thirty million kilometers from earth launched two years ago cyrus rex's mission is to map the giant space rock analyze its chemical make up and bring back some of its material for scientists to study it may reveal secrets about the formation of planets and the origins of life. this is a dark asteroid that we have found and that we're going to hunt down we're going to orbit we're going to take a good look at it and we're going to bring back a sample this is a fantastic mission benu about five hundred meters in diameter is a remnant of the earliest material that coalesced billions of years ago to form the earth and other planets oh cyrus rex will study the asteroid at close range using mapping technology and spectroscope that provide information about what it's made of that phase of the mission will last more than a year then in twenty twenty the spacecraft will approach the new surface there's two additional maneuvers that we do that both match the ast

the asteroid benu one hundred and thirty million kilometers from earth launched two years ago cyrus rex's mission is to map the giant space rock analyze its chemical make up and bring back some of its material for scientists to study it may reveal secrets about the formation of planets and the origins of life this is a dark asteroid that we have found and that we're going to hunt down we're going to orbit we're going to take a good look at it and we're going to bring back a sample this is a fantastic mission benu about five hundred meters in diameter is a remnant of the earliest material that coalesced billions of years ago to form the earth and other planets oh cyrus rex will study the asteroid at close range using mapping technology and spectroscope that provide information about what it's made of that phase of the mission will last more than a year then in twenty twenty the spacecraft will approach the new surface there's two additional maneuvers that we do the both match the asteroid spin rate and then put us on a trajectory where we go down towards the asteroid so we actually do take

and then my third favorite mission is cyrus rex. that is a little spacecraft that just arrived at the asteroid benu. benu is about the size of the empire state building. it could potentially collide with us over the next 200 yease. s a good idea to understand what it'sedoing up thre, whats orbit is. eventually the team would like to bring back a sample from benu, to do sophisticated laboratory tests here on the ground. but what's interesting is theyy alreund the presence of water on benu, not the good water, but inside claiz. so, william, if you're thinking about extending out human presence into space, hydrogen and oxygen in water, that'set rofuel. and so that could be a filling station to the stars for us. and i'll leave it at that. >> brangham: miles o'brien, as always, thank you so much. >> woodruff: tonight's brief but spectacular episode features franny choi, a poet whose work examines contemporary social issues. her first poetry collection is called "floating, brilliant, goneand is available now. >> there are only so many par