A training model of the sample return pill is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under a parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range. OSIRIS-REx is NASAs first asteroid sample return objective. Sample curation for the objective, including processing the sample upon Earth arrival, is designated to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. OSIRIS-REx is a significant mission under NASAs New Frontiers Program, managed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
Illustration of OSIRIS-REx diverting far from Earth after releasing its sample return capsule. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is set to return the very first U.S. asteroid sample to Earth in September after an effective mockup drop test in Utahs West Desert.
A group led by NASA in Utahs West Desert remains in the final stages of getting ready for the arrival of the first U.S. asteroid sample– slated to arrive on Earth in this month.
A mockup of NASAs OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security– Regolith Explorer) sample pill was dropped last Wednesday from an aircraft and landed at the drop zone at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. This belonged to the objectives final significant test prior to the arrival of the actual pill on September 24 with its sample of asteroid Bennu, gathered in space practically three years earlier.
A training model of the sample return pill is seen throughout a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will go back to Earth on September 24th, landing under a parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
” We are now mere weeks away from receiving a piece of planetary system history in the world, and this effective drop test ensures were all set,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Pristine product from asteroid Bennu will assist clarify the development of our solar system 4.5 billion years earlier, and perhaps even on how life in the world began.”
Rehearsals and Anticipation
This drop test follows a series of earlier rehearsals– capsule recovery, spacecraft engineering operations, and sample curation treatments– conducted previously this spring and summer season.
Now, with less than four weeks up until the spacecrafts arrival, the OSIRIS-REx team is nearing the end of wedding rehearsals and ready for the real delivery.
” I am immensely happy of the efforts our team has actually put into this undertaking,” stated Dante Lauretta, primary detective for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Just as our careful planning and rehearsal prepared us to collect a sample from Bennu, we have actually developed our skills for sample recovery.”
The capsule is bring a projected 8.8 ounces of rocky product gathered from the surface area of the asteroid Bennu in 2020. Scientists will study the sample in the coming years to find out about how our world and planetary system formed, as well as the origin of organics that might have caused life on Earth.
OSIRIS-REx is NASAs first asteroid sample return mission. The missions thrilling finale will take place on September 24, 2023, as a capsule including the Bennu samples touches down in Utahs West Desert.
Pills Arrival and Further Processing
The pill will get in Earths environment at 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT), traveling about 27,650 mph. NASAs live protection of the capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT), and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the companys website.
” We are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey, and it feels quite like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of feelings like pride and joy existing side-by-side with an identified focus to finish the race well,” stated Rich Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
When situated and packaged for travel, the capsule will be flown to a short-term clean room on the military range, where it will undergo initial processing and disassembly in preparation for its journey by aircraft to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the sample will be recorded, looked after, and dispersed for analysis to researchers worldwide.
Partnerships and partners
NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland is responsible for total objective management, systems engineering, and guaranteeing security and mission guarantee for OSIRIS-REx. Test curation for the objective, consisting of processing the sample upon Earth arrival, is designated to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. OSIRIS-REx is a substantial objective under NASAs New Frontiers Program, overseen by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.