NASA to Receive Asteroid Sample from Osiris-Rex Spacecraft Today

On Sunday, a NASA capsule is set to touch down in the Utah desert, marking the climactic end of a seven-year journey. This capsule carries the largest asteroid samples ever gathered, and scientists are optimistic about the valuable insights it will provide regarding the formation of our solar system and the development of Earth’s habitability. Although the Osiris-Rex probe’s descent through Earth’s atmosphere poses risks, the US space agency is aiming for a gentle landing at approximately 9:00 am local time (15:00 GMT) in a military test range located in northwestern Utah.

Four years after its launch in 2016, the probe landed on asteroid Bennu and collected about nine ounces (250 grams) of dust from its rocky surface.

NASA says even this small number should “help us better understand the types of asteroids that could threaten Earth” and shed light on “the earliest history of our solar system,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

“This sample return is truly historic,” NASA scientist Amy Simon told AFP. “This is the largest sample we’ve brought back since the Apollo moon rocks” were returned to Earth.

But recovering the capsule will require a “dangerous move,” he admitted.

Osiris-Rex is scheduled to release the capsule — from an altitude of more than 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers) — about four hours before it lands.

The fiery passage through the atmosphere doesn’t take place until the final 13 minutes, when the capsule hurtles downward at more than 27,000 miles per hour at temperatures of up to 5,000 Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

Its rapid descent, monitored by military sensors, is slowed by two successive parachutes. If they don’t start properly, a “hard landing” would follow.

If it looks like the target area (37 by 9 miles) might be missed, NASA flight controllers can decide at the last minute not to release the capsule.

The probe would then store its cargo and make another orbit around the sun. Scientists would have to wait until 2025 before attempting another landing.

If it succeeds, however, Osiris-Rex would be headed for a rendezvous with another asteroid.

Japanese samples

When the tire-sized capsule touches down in Utah, a team in protective masks and gloves places it in a net that is transported by helicopter to a nearby temporary “clean room.”

NASA wants this done as quickly and carefully as possible to avoid contaminating the sample with desert sand, which will skew the test results.

On Monday, assuming all goes well, the sample will be flown by plane to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, the box is opened in another “clean room” – the beginning of the process of days.

NASA plans to announce the first results at a press conference on October 11.

Most of the sample is preserved for future generations to study. About a quarter of it will be used immediately for experiments, and a small amount will be sent to the mission’s partners in Japan and Canada.

Japan had previously given NASA a few grains of the Ryugu asteroid when it brought 0.2 ounces of dust to Earth in 2020 during the Hayabusa-2 mission. Ten years ago, it had brought back a microscopic amount from another asteroid.

But Bennu’s sample is much larger, allowing for significantly more testing, Simon said.

– Earth’s origin story –

Asteroids are made up of the primordial materials of the Solar System, dating back to about 4.5 billion years ago, and have survived relatively intact.

They “can give us clues about how the solar system formed and evolved,” said Melissa Morris, director of the Osiris-Rex program.

“It’s our own origin story.”

By hitting the Earth’s surface, “We believe that asteroids and comets delivered organic material, possibly water, that helped life flourish here on Earth,” Simon said.

Scientists believe Bennu, which is 1,640 feet in diameter, is rich in carbon — the building blocks of life on Earth — and contains water molecules locked in minerals.

Bennu had surprised researchers in 2020, when the probe had sunk into the soil within a few seconds of contact with the asteroid’s surface, revealing an unexpectedly low density, sort of like a kiddie pool filled with plastic balls.

Understanding its composition may be useful — in the distant — future.

It has a small but non-zero chance (one in 2700) that Bennu will crash into Earth catastrophically, though not until 2182.

But NASA managed to deflect an asteroid by bumping into it in an experiment with a probe last year, and may have to repeat the exercise at some point – but with much higher stakes.