NASA is ready for the return of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which is in its final leg after gathering samples from asteroid Bennu. Astronomers are hopeful that the samples will help them find more clues about the birth of the solar system.
NASA Prepping for OSIRIS-REx's Return
The aircraft is expected to return on Sept. 24. Upon arrival, a sample capsule will parachute into the Utah desert. It's the first U.S. mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth.
According to the space organization, its arrival back to the planet is among the most challenging part of the mission. The experts must follow a specific procedure to ensure the samples are safe, Newsweek reported.
According to Rowan Curtis, a space scientist at PA Consulting and the University of Oxford, U.K., it must approach Earth precisely at the right speed and angle when it arrives in late September 2023, or it won't make it through Earth's atmosphere.
It will do a series of meticulously planned moves until that point to ensure it gets to the ground safely. Once it has been gathered on Earth, it will be sent to researchers in every country so they may conduct detailed analyses of its specific composition, water content, age, and other factors.
They expect that the sample will illuminate what organic material was present on the early Earth, which later became the building blocks for life, in addition to aiding them in classifying and understanding asteroids.
NASA is also considering protecting OSIRIS-REx from vibrations, heat, and contamination.
What Will They Do With the Samples Gathered
The OSIRIS-REx team will concentrate on perfecting its processes for receiving the sample from the desert while guarding it against contamination over the following six months while the spacecraft continues its trip.
The sample will be transported to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after it has been collected from the desert. Samples from asteroids may already be on the planet. Yet, contamination from Earth makes it challenging to examine them for solar system hints.
According to NASA, flight dynamics engineers at NASA and KinetX Aerospace are examining the trajectory that will allow the mission to approach Earth in addition to rehearsing strategies to prevent contamination. A curation crew is practicing taking the sample from the spacecraft back at the Johnson Space Center.
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Mike Moreau, deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Newsweek that once the sample touches down, they will immediately recover it and place it in a temporary clean room.
More About OSIRIS-REx Mission
Obtaining pure samples from asteroid Bennu was the goal of the OSIRIS-REx mission. The sample must therefore be preserved in its current state after it touches down on Earth.
Bennu was selected as the OSIRIS-REx target because it has a high likelihood (1 in 1800) of colliding with Earth in the late 22nd century and is the most chemically interesting of all the asteroids we may safely collect samples from, Curtis explained.
Bennu is only one of around 200 asteroids close to Earth and has an orbit that is similar to our planet. Only 26 asteroids were of the appropriate size to make sample collection reasonably safe. The B-type asteroid Bennu is one of those 26, and its composition makes it one of the most intriguing. It is a primitive (approximately four billion years old), carbon-rich object that exemplifies the type of things that could have brought organic substances, amino acids, and volatiles like water to Earth.
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