Spacecraft Will Land on Two Different Asteroids Th

There are plenty of exciting space missions planned for 2018, but one incredible pair will bring back the best present Earthlings could ask for—souvenirs of their journeys. Those two spacecraft are American and Japanese missio Vending Telemeter ns to visit and study asteroids, then carry samples back to scientists here on Earth to examine in the lab a couple of years from now.

NASA's asteroid mission is formally known as the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer but goes by OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft launched in 2016, did a little dance around Earth last year to pick up speed and is now heading out to its target, which still lies about 460 million miles away.

That target is an asteroid called Bennu, a type B asteroid, which means it's made primarily of organic compounds and clays. It's a fairly large target, taller than the Empire State Building, and scientists suspect that not much has happened to Bennu since it f remote diagnostics ormed, which should mean they can use it as a type of time capsule of the early solar system. And the mission has a protective element as well: Although there's no immediate threat from Bennu, there's a chance its orbit in the late 22nd century, more than 150 years from now, could bring it crashing into Earth.

What OSIRIS-REx might look like as it takes a sample from the asteroid Bennu. NASA/GSFC