NASA Preparing For First-Ever Asteroid Sample Return Mission; Empire State Building Parachute To Land in Utah Next Week

NASA is gearing up to ensure that the sample from asteroid Bennu that will arrive next week will be handled properly. The U.S. space agency has been preparing for weeks.

NASA's First Sample Return Mission

NASA is thrilled about the culmination of its first sample return mission and even uploaded a teaser on YouTube in anticipation of the long-term OSIRIS-REx's conclusion. Bennu, a 1,640-foot-wide (500-meter) asteroid, will be sampled by a capsule the size of the Empire State Building that will fall into the Utah desert on Monday (Sept. 24).

It's a unique opportunity for scientists to examine pristine samples of the components of the early solar system. To understand how the solar system formed and how life first emerged, scientists will look for sugars, water, and organic molecules in the sample. They may even discover the molecular building blocks of life and the water found in the oceans of Earth.

OSIRIS-REx orbited the space rock in 2016. On Oct. 20, 2020, when it was more than 200 million miles (321 million km) from Earth, it collected at least 0.12 lbs./60g of material and perhaps as much as 4.4 lbs./2 kg sample. A film was made from 82 photos that were put together after the material was captured during a six-second touchdown on Bennu.

Aside from moon landings, this is NASA's first sample return mission. Up until now, only Japan's Hayabusa (asteroid Itokawa in 2010) and Hayabusa2 (asteroid Ryugu in 2020) missions have successfully returned samples from space.

The spacecraft is scheduled to land at the Utah Test and Training Range, which is located on the southern side of Interstate 80 west of Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday. At 7:42 a.m. PDT, the capsule is expected to enter Earth's atmosphere.

After a safe landing, the sample will be transported by helicopter to a temporary clean room on the nearby U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground.

The sample will next travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will be recorded, separated, and given to researchers all around the world for what is expected to be decades of investigation.

NASA Conducted Drop Test To Wrap Up Preparation

Last month, NASA's OSIRIS-REx team successfully performed a crucial test by retrieving a dummy spacecraft that had fallen to Earth in the Utah Test and Training Range of the Department of Defense in the desert west of Salt Lake City. According to Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a statement, the team's readiness has been confirmed by the successful drop test, which occurred just a few weeks before the sample is scheduled to land on Earth.

Fox and her colleagues expect to learn more about how our solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago and perhaps even how life on Earth first began by examining the pure material from the asteroid Bennu.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx is the first asteroid sample collection expedition in American history. It began operating in September 2016. The goal of the mission was to examine and gather samples from the possibly dangerous asteroid Bennu, which is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide.

Check out more news and information on SPACE in Science Times.