 "Asteroid Bennu")
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will analyse the asteroid Bennu sample once it lands back on earth, which will enhance our understanding of the formation of the solar system and our own planet earth. The asteroid Bennu is expected to reach earth in late September this year.
The precious cargo is currently aboard OSIRIS-REx (acronym for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer") launched in September 2016. The asteroid Bennu orbits at an average distance of about 105 million miles or 168 kilometres from the sun.
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The craft landed on near-earth asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and then used hardware at the end of its robotic arm to snag a hefty sample of the space rock. This is the first US space mission to attempt to bring an asteroid sample to earth.
According to space.com, the OSIRIS-REx was built by Lockheed Martin Space and the company offers flight operations for the craft which won’t be needed after it jettisons the earth-bound capsule.
The NASA probe will then move towards the second asteroid, the potentially hazardous apophis, on an extended mission which is known as OSIRIS-APEX. If everything goes well, the spacecraft will slip into the orbit of that rocky world in 2029.
Once it’s on earth, the scientists will separate the pieces of rock and dust from the sample for study now while carefully storing away the rest for future generations equipped with better technology. The practice first began during the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Nicole Lunning, lead OSIRIS-Rex sample curator, told AFP, "We don't expect there to be anything living but (rather) the building blocks of life."
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Once the return vessel arrives at the Texas "cleanroom," Lunning's job will be to carefully disassemble it and separate the contents, all while keeping the material pure and uncontaminated.
As soon as the return vessel arrives at the Texas "cleanroom, the Lunning's job is to carefully disassemble it and separate the content, and at the same time, he will also ensure that the material is pure and uncontaminated.
NASA rehearses asteroid sample recovery mission
The capsule containing the sample is expected to land on September 24 and will perform a parachute-assisted landing within a 59 km by 15 km ellipse in the Utah desert. The recovery team will try to collect the sample quickly to avoid contamination. Considering the sensitivity of the mission, the OSIRIS-REx mission team executed multiple rehearsals of the mission on July 18-20.
Commenting on the rehearsal exercise, NASA said, "Though the team has rehearsed portions of the recovery operation many times this year, this was the most realistic rehearsal yet."
