Six years and greater than 200 million miles later, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is lastly on its manner house from the asteroid Bennu. In slightly 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 house and right into a lab safely, preserving it for many years of science to return.
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.Â
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 sort of asteroid that astronomers count on hasn’t modified a lot because it fashioned, making it a well-preserved specimen from the early solar system — a window again in time. Because it’s orbit passes Earth’s, nonetheless, 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, amassing photos 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). Actually, TAGSAM caught a lot asteroid materials that rubble really began leaking and overflowing its container.
“The truth that we obtained greater than we thought we would nonetheless means each small gram of that asteroid materials remains to be tremendous worthwhile to us,” Nicole Lunning, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Texas, mentioned throughout a media occasion on the AGU assembly on Monday (Dec. 12).
The pattern of Bennu’s rock and dust nonetheless has a protracted method to go, with virtually a 12 months of space journey time left. However from coming 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, making certain that the pattern is not contaminated with Earth dust. Inside a number of days, it is going to be flown to its remaining house at Johnson Area Middle for additional examine.
Of the pattern, 75% shall be preserved for future scientists, whereas the remaining 25% shall be analyzed and cataloged by the OSIRIS-REx staff. 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 are going to “actually fastidiously and slowly, methodically, acquire all that treasured dust.”Â
The primary preliminary outcomes must be accessible by Oct. 2, 2023, she mentioned, with rather more to return as scientists dig into the information.
And though the pattern capsule is coming again to Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft itself is barely dropping by for a fast hiya earlier than persevering with by the inside solar system. The challenge was recently approved for an prolonged mission to rendezvous with the well-known harbinger of destruction, the asteroid Apophis.Â
The spacecraft cannot acquire one other pattern, since that piece of kit has already been used, however the staff is trying ahead to getting a close-up take a look at a distinct hazardous near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft is because of arrive just a week earlier than Apophis makes a very shut strategy to Earth, and can examine the space rock for about 18 months.Â
However first, there’s tons to study as soon as our piece of Bennu hits the bottom only one brief 12 months from now.
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