ASU Earth and space exploration professor Philip Christensen is working with UA to launch an exploration of asteroids as part of a possible NASA mission.

Christensen is working to create a thermal emissions spectrometer that will help in the proposed mission by measuring thermal radiation on a specific asteroid.

Dante Lauretta, deputy principal investigator for the project, explained that Christensen’s instrument will use thermal radiation to help scientists identify objects on asteroids.

“It will use infrared technology the way a rattlesnake can sense the heat coming off a mouse — any warm body or mass will emit thermal radiation,” Lauretta said.

The instrument designed by Christensen is one of several the mission will utilize.

Lauretta said scientists will also have cameras to take photos of the asteroid. A Canadian space agency will provide a laser to scan the surface and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland will provide instruments to analyze mineral composition, as well as particles and gases in the asteroid’s environment.

Lauretta said Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Denver, Colo., will build the spacecraft, including a device to take a sample of the asteroid and a capsule to return the sample to Earth.

Robert Burnham, spokesman for the School of Earth and Space Exploration, said this project is one of three semifinalists selected by NASA for its New Frontier Program.

The two other proposed missions include a trip to explore the basin near the south pole of the moon and a mission to further explore the planet Venus, according to NASA’s Web site.

Each of the three semifinalists were given $3.3 million and one year to further refine and test their mission proposals before they submit final proposals to NASA in the summer of 2011.

The New Frontier Program will fund the winning project up to $650 million and requires that the project be launched by 2018.

The collaborative effort this project requires has brought together professional scientists as well as several professors at both ASU and UA.

Christensen said he was excited to work in collaboration with researchers at UA.

“Both universities have very strong planetary science programs. In the past, the two universities have done different types of work but this is an excellent chance for us to work together,” he said. “If this project is successful, it will bring jobs and money to the state as well as the University. It brings prestige and money to both.”

Lauretta said the project is exciting both because he is trying to understand the source of organic molecules that could have been the source of life and because it is a matter of national security. The asteroid the team is planning to rendezvous with is one that has the potential to impact Earth, he said.

“Asteroids are over four-and-a-half billion years old, so they were around long before our planets formed. They are sort of the leftover building blocks of our solar system,” Lauretta said. “The impact hazard an asteroid has on the Earth — it’s potentially very hazardous — so studying it in great detail … has a practical national security application.”

Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu