Six years and greater than 200 million miles later, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is lastly on its means residence from the asteroid Bennu. In just below a 12 months, on Sept. 24, 2023, the mission’s pattern collector — a basket filled with asteroid dust and rocks — will return to Earth’s floor, whereas the spacecraft itself zooms on to its subsequent vacation spot.
This week on the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 Fall Assembly held in Chicago and just about, planetary scientists gathered to debate what to anticipate from subsequent 12 months’s OSIRIS-REx pattern return. Their new 12 months’s decision? To get this asteroid pattern residence and right into a lab safely, preserving it for many years of science to come back.
OSIRIS-REx, extra formally Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Useful resource Identification-Safety-Regolith Explorer, launched in 2016 and spent virtually three years exploring Bennu, an historic asteroid whose orbit crosses Earth’s.
Associated: Dramatic sampling shows asteroid Bennu is nothing like scientists expected
The space rock is a very attention-grabbing goal for each science and planetary protection, which focuses on defending Earth from asteroid impacts. Bennu is a kind of asteroid that astronomers count on hasn’t modified a lot because it shaped, making it a well-preserved specimen from the early solar system — a window again in time. Because it’s orbit passes Earth’s, nevertheless, Bennu can be a menace (albeit an unlikely one) to humanity, and understanding its nature could also be essential if a future mission tries to maneuver it out of Earth’s path.
The mission orbited Bennu, accumulating pictures and different information of the asteroid, then approached the floor to make use of its small sample-collecting arm. This contraption, often called the TAGSAM, collected between 5 and 12 ounces (150 to 350 grams) of asteroid materials — in regards to the weight of a hamster, and rather more than the deliberate 2 ounces (60 g). In actual fact, TAGSAM caught a lot asteroid materials that rubble really began leaking and overflowing its container.
“The truth that we received greater than we thought we would nonetheless means each small gram of that asteroid materials continues to be tremendous invaluable to us,” Nicole Lunning, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Texas, stated throughout a media occasion on the AGU assembly on Monday (Dec. 12).
The pattern of Bennu’s rock and dust nonetheless has a protracted option to go, with virtually a 12 months of space journey time left. However from getting into Earth’s atmosphere to touching down in a flat area of Utah, the pattern return capsule’s journey will solely take 13 minutes. The primary precedence as soon as the capsule lands is to get it right into a clear room instantly, guaranteeing that the pattern is not contaminated with Earth dust. Inside a number of days, it will likely be flown to its remaining residence at Johnson Area Middle for additional research.
Of the pattern, 75% can be preserved for future scientists, whereas the remaining 25% can be analyzed and cataloged by the OSIRIS-REx group. They even have particular tools, like vacuum tweezers, to make sure they collect each little bit of the space gunk coating the spacecraft. After an preliminary evaluation, Lunning says they may “actually fastidiously and slowly, methodically, gather all that treasured dust.”
The primary preliminary outcomes ought to be obtainable by Oct. 2, 2023, she stated, with rather more to come back as scientists dig into the information.
And though the pattern capsule is coming again to Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft itself is simply dropping by for a fast hey earlier than persevering with by the interior solar system. The venture was recently approved for an prolonged mission to rendezvous with the well-known harbinger of destruction, the asteroid Apophis.
The spacecraft cannot gather one other pattern, since that piece of kit has already been used, however the group is wanting ahead to getting a close-up have a look at a special hazardous near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft is because of arrive just a week earlier than Apophis makes a very shut method to Earth, and can research the space rock for about 18 months.
However first, there’s heaps to study as soon as our piece of Bennu hits the bottom only one brief 12 months from now.
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