The OSIRIS-REx mission is nearing its final stretch because it closes in on Earth after a seven-year round trip to the asteroid Bennu. The capsule containing the sample is scheduled the make the fiery plunge through the atmosphere on September twenty fourth.
The mission, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, launched back in September 2016 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V to start its journey to the near-Earth asteroid and after a 2-year trip through space arrived in orbit around Bennu in December 2018.
The orbiter proceeded to review the asteroid for nearly 2 more years, looking for a correct site to conduct its touch-and-go landing in an effort to collect a viable sample of the asteroid. After an intensive scan of the celestial body, sometimes orbiting lower than a mile above the surface, NASA chosen its location and commanded the orbiter to lower itself to the surface for the sample.
Well, I definitely touched down on Bennu!
Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for roughly 6 seconds, inside 3 feet (1 meter) of the targeted location. #ToBennuAndBack
More details: https://t.co/4rBrB27FEZ pic.twitter.com/LjDQICmxJM
— NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 21, 2020
The goal of the mission was to gather 2.1 ounces of regolith. After the maneuver was accomplished, the orbiter backed away from Bennu with its sample. It wasn’t smooth sailing, though, because the lid for the sample tube didn’t have an ideal seal and was leaking back out into space. When mission controllers saw this, they commanded the spacecraft to store the tube within the Sample Return Capsule.
At first, the teams didn’t know in the event that they managed to get the two.1-ounce sample, but after measurements, they determined that they had at the very least 8.1 ounces of regolith from Bennu, in keeping with Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator from the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Once the sample was confirmed to be secured within the capsule, OSIRIS-REx left the orbit of Bennu in May 2021 for its trip back to Earth.
Back on the bottom in Utah, recovery teams have now run multiple test runs of recovery day, including multiple drop simulations from an aircraft and practicing to be sure that the sample is handled rigorously and never contaminated after landing.
Teams will conduct a go/no go poll prior to the Sample Return Capsules release from the orbiter, and if for some reason a no is given, they won’t have a probability to get better the sample until 2025 after a dangerous trip near the Sun.
Once a go is given, the capsule can be released from the orbiter 4 hours before the scheduled re-entry. The capsule will hit the atmosphere at 27,000 miles per hour, followed by a parachute being deployed and a soft touchdown at 10 miles per hour. The orbiter will perform a maneuver after release so it doesn’t enter the atmosphere and can undertake a brand recent mission to review the asteroid Apophis.
Scientists hope to get a greater understanding of how the Earth and Solar System formed, and a successful sample return will produce a ton of exciting discoveries.