NASA’s OSIRIS-REx capsule arrives in Houston

The primary U.S. asteroid pattern, delivered by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to Earth on Sept. 24, has arrived at its everlasting dwelling at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston, the place it will likely be cared for, saved, and distributed to scientists worldwide.

The pattern arrived in Houston at 12:40 pm ET (11:40 am CT) aboard a U.S. Air Drive C-17 plane, which landed at Ellington Subject. From there, it was transferred to NASA Johnson.

The group will spend the following few weeks within the clean room at Johnson constructed completely for Bennu samples. The clear room contains customized glove containers constructed to suit the pattern canister containing the TAGSAM (Contact-and-Go Pattern Acquisition Mechanism) head inside. The TAGSAM head was on the tip of a robotic arm that collected rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu’s floor on October 20, 2020.

Having practiced these procedures for months, scientists and technicians plan to proceed by the various steps of eradicating the pattern from the TAGSAM. First, they plan to put the canister within the glove field and disassemble it. Then, they plan to take away the TAGSAM head, the place scientists anticipate most pattern to be, cataloging and storing every bit of {hardware} and asteroid dust discovered exterior of it.

Researchers plan to investigate asteroid dust from the preliminary disassembly for an early glimpse into the chemical, mineralogical, and physical characteristics and rock varieties which may be discovered within the bulk pattern.

NASA plans to share these preliminary findings, plus first photographs of the pattern, in a stay broadcast on October 11.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the primary U.S. mission to gather a pattern from an asteroid, will return to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, with materials from asteroid Bennu. When it arrives, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch the pattern capsule for a protected touchdown within the Utah desert. The pristine materials from Bennu—rocks and dust collected from the asteroid’s floor in 2020—will supply generations of scientists a window into the time when the sun and planets have been forming about 4.5 billion years in the past.