NASA recently exchanged international asteroid samples with the Japanese Exploration Agency. The said execution marks the hugest sample of asteroids curated in the history of Johnson Space Center.
A KHOU-11 report specified that according to NASA Astro Materials Specialist Christopher Snead, "it is not me walking around on the moon or anything." However, it is a different type of exploration.
Together with his team at NASA, Snead has successfully taken space to Space City. The small
piece of an asteroid traveled over 10 million miles back to this planet.
Describing the event, the NASA specialist also said it is just an "unbelievable roundtrip journey." He continued, there are windows back into time that allows them to see what took place, the manner planets were formed, and probably, how the original ingredients for life appeared to the surface.
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An artist's concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft near asteroid 1999 RQ36.
The Asteroid Sample
In partnership with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA, NASA decided to exchange return samples for each of the asteroid missions of the agency.
A video from the asteroid during the Hayabusa 2 Project of JAXA exhibited how samples were retrieved. Such samples will go on for tens of years and fuel all sorts of studies, explained Snead.
Consequently, he added, people who have not been born yet will be utilizing instruments that have not been devised yet to investigate these very specimens they received.
The sample is very tiny in that it is measured in milligrams. It is akin to the size of something one might find in his medicine cabinet.
Priceless Specimens
Essentially, Snead continued explaining, the asteroid sample is roughly 500 milligrams, although that is a lifetime worth of study.
The study comes at a cost, although when Snead is asked about designating a cost on a piece of rock probably disclosing the universe's secrets, he claimed it is impossible.
Describing the specimens, the NASA specialist also said what they "receive is priceless." He added, there are national treasures that are more treasured compared to anything they would have in Fort Knox.
They are just indeed infrequent and priceless, not to mention, scientifically will "pay back dividends," said Snead.
Returning in 2023 with Bennu Asteroid
As part of the exchange of asteroid samples, NASA is sending JAXA some of its samples. After orbiting the sun two times, the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, as described by the space agency's website, will return with pieces of the Bennu asteroid on September 24, 2023.
In just less than two years, and that time passes, explained Snead. It is a historic exchange to capture a sight of the past for future generations.
He elaborated, the exchange, on that particular level, has never been done in the past, and that is undeniably exciting.
According to a Space Daily report, as part of its future plans, NASA plans to partner with JAXA on the spacecraft Martian Moons Exploration or MMX.
JAXA, or its part, intends to send the spacecraft to the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, collect a sample from the surface of one of the two, and go back to the Earth by 2029.
Related information about the exchange of asteroid samples is shown on KHOU 11's YouTube video below:
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