A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Safety and Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US on September 8, 2016. Image. Joel Koski/NASA/Handout via Reuters/File Obtaining licensing rights
September 24 (Reuters) – A NASA capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid is scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday, and is expected to penetrate the atmosphere and parachute into the Utah desert to deliver its celestial sample to scientists. .
The robotic OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to release a gum-shaped capsule, transporting about a cup of gravel asteroid material, at 6:42 a.m. EDT (1042 GMT) for a final descent to Earth, the culmination of a seven-year journey.
Plans are for the capsule to land a little more than four hours later in a 250-square-mile (650-square-kilometre) landing zone west of Salt Lake City at the US Army’s expansive test and training range in Utah.
The success of the mission, which is a joint effort between NASA and the University of Arizona, will represent the third asteroid sample, and the largest ever, to return to Earth for analysis, after two similar missions by the Japanese Space Agency that ended in 2010 and 2020.
OSIRIS-REx collected its sample from Bennu, a small, carbon-rich asteroid that was discovered in 1999 and is classified as a “near-Earth object” because it passes relatively close to our planet every six years, although the odds of a collision are considered remote.
Bennu appears to consist of a loose collection of rocks, like a pile of rubble, and is only 500 meters (1,600 feet) across, making it slightly wider than the tall Empire State Building but small compared to the Chicxulub asteroid that hit Earth for about $66 million. Years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out.
Primitive remains
Like other asteroids, Bennu is a remnant of the early solar system. Because its current chemistry and mineralogy are virtually unchanged since its formation about 4.5 billion years ago, it holds valuable clues about the origins and evolution of rocky planets like Earth.
It may even contain organic molecules similar to those necessary for the emergence of microbes.
Samples returned three years ago by the Japanese Hayabusa 2 mission from Ryugu, another near-Earth asteroid, were found to contain two organic compounds, supporting the hypothesis that celestial bodies such as comets, asteroids and meteorites that bombarded early Earth may have seeded the young planet with The basic components of life.
OSIRIS-REx launched in September 2016 and reached Bennu in 2018, then spent nearly two years orbiting the asteroid before getting close enough to grab a sample of bulk surface material with its robotic arm on October 20, 2020.
The spacecraft left Bennu in May 2021 on a 1.2 billion mile (1.9 billion km) cruise back to Earth, including two orbits around the sun. If the control center orders the sample return capsule to be launched as planned, it will be jettisoned 67,000 miles from Earth on the final leg of the return journey.
The capsule is expected to glow upon reaching the upper atmosphere at 35 times the speed of sound, as it descends toward Earth, with temperatures inside the ship reaching a peak of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius).
The parachutes are designed to deploy near the end of the descent, slowing the capsule’s speed to about 11 mph before gently falling to the desert floor in northwestern Utah.
Bennu’s sample is estimated at 250 grams (8.8 ounces), which far exceeds the 5 grams of material transported from Ryugu in 2020 or the small sample delivered from asteroid Itokawa in 2010.
Scientists hope that the integrity of the capsule and the inner canister holding the asteroid material will be preserved through re-entry and landing, keeping the sample clean and free of any terrestrial contamination.
Upon arrival, the sample will be flown by helicopter to a “clean room” at the Utah Test Range for initial screening, then flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, to be broken down into smaller samples promised by about 200 scientists in 60 laboratories around the world. the world.
Meanwhile, the main body of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to set sail to explore another near-Earth asteroid, called Apophis.
Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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