NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is cruising back to Earth with a
sample it collected from the rocky surface of asteroid Bennu. When its sample
capsule parachutes down into the Utah desert on Sept. 24, OSIRIS-REx will
become the United States’ first-ever mission to return an asteroid sample to
Earth.
After seven years in space, including a nail-biting
touchdown on Bennu to gather dust and rocks, this intrepid mission is about to face one of its
biggest challenges yet: deliver the asteroid sample to Earth while protecting
it from heat, vibrations, and earthly contaminants.
“Once the sample capsule touches down, our team will be racing against the clock to recover it and get it to the safety of a temporary clean room,” said Mike Moreau, deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is cruising back to Earth with a sample it collected from the rocky surface of asteroid Bennu. When its sample capsule parachutes down into the Utah desert on Sept. 24, OSIRIS-REx will become the United States’ first-ever mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth. Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14316 Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
So, over the next six months, the
OSIRIS-REx team will practice and refine the procedures required to recover the
sample in Utah and transport it to a new lab built for the material at NASA’s
Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, scientists will unpack the sample,
distribute up to a quarter of it to the OSIRIS-REx science team around the
world for analysis, and curate the rest for other scientists to study, now and
in future generations.
Flight dynamics
engineers from NASA Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are reviewing the trajectory
that will bring the spacecraft close to Earth. At Lockheed Martin in Denver,
team members are keeping tabs on the spacecraft and preparing a group to
recover the sample capsule. This summer, crews in Colorado and Utah will
practice all of the steps to recover the capsule safely, while protecting it
from contamination. At Johnson Space Center, the curation team is rehearsing
their procedure to unpack and process the sample inside glove boxes. Meanwhile,
members of the sample science team are preparing the investigations they will
perform with the sample material once received.
“The OSIRIS-REx team has already
performed amazing feats characterizing and sampling asteroid Bennu,” said Dante
Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator from the University of Arizona,
Tucson. “These accomplishments are the direct result of the extensive training
and rehearsals that we performed every step of the way. We are bringing that
level of discipline and dedication to this final phase of the flight
operations.”
Members of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation team practice with a mock glove box at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The curation team will be among the first to see and handle the sample OSIRIS-REx is returning from asteroid Bennu. They are also responsible for storing and distributing the sample to science team members around the world. Most of the sample will be stored for future generations. Credits: NASA Johnson/Bill Stafford
Asteroids are the ancient materials
left over from the original era of planet formation and may contain molecular
precursors to life. Scientists have learned a great deal from studying asteroid
fragments that have naturally reached the ground as meteorites. But to
understand whether asteroids played a role in delivering these compounds to
Earth’s surface over 4 billion years ago, scientists need a pristine sample
from space, free from terrestrial contaminants.
In addition, the most fragile rocks
observed on Bennu probably would not have survived passage through Earth’s
atmosphere as meteorites. “There are two things pervasive on Earth: water and
biology,” said Dr. Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA Goddard.
“Both can severely alter meteorites when they land on the ground
and muddle the story told by the sample’s chemistry and mineralogy. A pristine
sample could provide insights into the development of solar system.”
On Sept. 24, as the OSIRIS-REx
spacecraft flies by Earth, it will release its sample return capsule, thereby
ending its primary mission. The capsule, which is estimated to hold about a cup
of Bennu’s material – 8.8 ounces +/- 3.6 ounces (250 grams +/- 101 grams) to be
precise – will land within a 37-mile by 9-mile ellipse (59 km by 15 km) within
Department of Defense property that is part of the Utah Test and Training Range
and Dugway Proving Grounds.
OSIRIS-REx team members from NASA
Goddard, KinetX, Lockheed Martin, and NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia, are using computer models to test navigation plans in
various weather, solar activity, and space debris scenarios to ensure that when
the capsule enters Earth’s atmosphere at 10:41 a.m. ET (8:41 a.m. MT), it will
touch down inside the targeted area 13 minutes later.
Recovery crews are responsible for
securing the sample return capsule’s landing site and helicoptering it to a
portable clean room located at the range. Additionally, crews will collect soil
and air samples all around the landing capsule. These samples will help
identify if any minute contaminants contacted the asteroid sample.
Once the capsule is inside the
building with the portable clean room, members of the team will remove the heat
shield, back shell, and other components to prepare the sample canister for
transport to Houston.
The return to Earth of samples from
asteroid Bennu will be the culmination of a more than 12-year effort by NASA
and its mission partners but marks the beginning of a new phase of discovery as
scientists from around the world will turn their attention to the analysis of
this unique and precious material dating from the early formation of our solar
system.
Related Story
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and
mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team
and the mission's science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed
Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight
operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample
when it arrives on Earth, will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx
Laser Altimeter instrument from the Canadian Space Agency and asteroid sample
science collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2
mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program,
managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the
agency's Science Mission Directorate Washington.
By Rani Gran
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA Prepares for Historic Asteroid Sample Delivery on Sept. 24 | NASA
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