NASA’s Osiris-REx spacecraft returns an asteroid sample to Earth: NPR

Scientists rejoice over the safe arrival of a package containing about a cup of asteroid rocks, collected 200 million miles away and landing in the Utah desert after a 7-year NASA mission sent to retrieve them.

The black pebbles and dirt are older than Earth, undisturbed remains from the early days of planet formation in the solar system. As part of an asteroid called Bennu, these rocks have traveled unblemished through space for eons.

While fragments of asteroids regularly fall to our planet in the form of meteorites, scientists want to study parent asteroid materials, the stuff that is not contaminated with our planet, to understand the early chemistry that may have contributed to the emergence of life.

That’s why scientists immediately moved the returned capsule to a nearby clean room and placed it under a cloak of nitrogen gas to protect it from Earth’s atmosphere while it was transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The researchers expect to be able to open the sealed sample container there either late Monday or early Tuesday, something they have been dreaming of doing for nearly two decades.

“Today marked the end of an almost 20-year adventure for me,” he says. Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and commander of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. “I was fortunate to be one of the first people to lay eyes on the capsule, and we made that landing.”

He’s eager to start analyzing the asteroid rock, to see what surprises it might hold.

“We think we have a lot of samples in this science box, and we can’t wait to be able to analyze them,” Loretta says.

Briquette

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in 2016, and in 2018 it finally reached Bennu, a pile of asteroid rubble roughly the size of the Empire State Building. The spacecraft remained attached to the space rock for about two years, and in 2020, it finally touched down and briefly touched Bennu to collect a sample.

Scientists weren’t sure exactly how much rock the spacecraft had collected, and they knew they would only know if its return capsule made it home.

The billion-dollar mission culminated in victory after a thrilling final 13 minutes Sunday morning, when the capsule entered the atmosphere at 36 times the speed of sound and plunged toward a military training range in the desert near Salt Lake City.

Mission scientists are eagerly awaiting the deployment of orange and white parachutes that will slow its fall. Without this parachute, the capsule might have broken apart.

Loretta says he was in a helicopter, listening to updates from mission controllers, mentally preparing himself for the worst if the parachute failed.

“Then we heard ‘Main chute detected,’ and I burst into tears,” he recalls. “That was the moment I knew we were coming home.”

He says he felt proud, awe, gratitude, and overwhelming relief, and had to convince himself this wasn’t a dream.

“It’s the end of a journey and the beginning of a new one,” Lauretta says, adding that the next laboratory investigation is his focus now.

Mission managers tracked the capsule’s fall with radar and deployed helicopters to recover it once it landed safely in the desolate desert.

The capsule, which turned black due to its fiery return through the atmosphere, looked almost like a UFO-shaped coal briquette, the size of a small refrigerator.

“It looked perfect. There was no sign of any damage,” Loretta says. “It was like seeing an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time.”

He said he wanted to hug her. “But I knew it was going to be bleak,” Loretta jokes. “It was amazing and emotional. I was emotional all day and that was one of the big moments for me.”

The researchers took environmental samples of the air and dirt around the landing site, just to make sure that if any type of contamination occurred, they would know what the capsule was exposed to.

The big reveal

As part of the preparation to get it ready for travel, workers in a clean room removed the back cover of the heat shield that covered and protected the metal science case filled with extraterrestrial rocks.

NASA says all instruments appear to be in good condition Eileen StansburyAdding that it was very similar to how it was before launch, before it traveled more than a billion miles through space.

“It was very clean inside,” Stansbury says. “It was a beautiful, clean, extraordinary experience to see that the spacecraft itself should work very well, and that all the engineering that went into ensuring that the science box remained clean had done its job.”

After arriving at NASA’s Houston Center, the can will be opened in a special laboratory designed to allow researchers to study its contents while keeping the material uncontaminated.

The first samples to be analyzed will likely be bits of dust that have escaped from the rock collection device located inside the case.

Next, the researchers will slowly and methodically disassemble the assembly device inside the case. This is the instrument that touches the surface of the asteroid and holds the rock.

It is expected that the final opening, and the unveiling of the largest rocks, will take place in the first week of October. NASA is planning an event on October 11, where they will showcase their treasure and reveal what has been learned so far.

While Japan had previously brought back small amounts of dirt from a different asteroid, the new haul is the largest amount of extraterrestrial stuff brought home since the Apollo astronauts returned with moon rocks.

NASA is currently working on another mission to return rocks from Mars, and Loretta is already dreaming of a comet sample return mission.

But first, he will study parts of the asteroid he devoted so much of his life to obtaining.

“I have to be patient and I’m really practicing patience,” Loretta says, noting that he couldn’t shake the returned capsule like a child trying to figure out what was inside a wrapped Christmas present. “We have a busy week ahead of us.”