The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission is seen soon after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective achieved success by securely returning a capsule with asteroid Bennu samples to Earth, leading the way for important clinical research on planetary development and lifes origins.
After years of anticipation and tough work by NASAs OSIRIS-REx ( Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security– Regolith Explorer) group, a capsule of rocks and dust gathered from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, in a targeted location of the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.
The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Lockheed Martin System Safety Engineer Victoria Thiem, left, and On Scene Commander of Recovery Stuart Wylie, right, carry out initial look at the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective quickly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Within an hour and a half, the capsule was carried by helicopter to a temporary tidy room established in a garage on the training variety, where it now is connected to a continuous flow of nitrogen.
Getting the sample under a “nitrogen purge,” as scientists call it, was among the OSIRIS-REx groups most important tasks today. Nitrogen is a gas that does not interact with a lot of other chemicals, and a continuous circulation of it into the sample container inside the capsule will stay out earthly contaminants to leave the sample pure for scientific analyses.
Lockheed Martin System Safety Engineer Victoria Thiem performs initial checks on the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission shortly after the capsule landed. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is seen shortly after touching down in the desert. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The returned samples collected from Bennu will help scientists worldwide make discoveries to better understand planet development and the origin of organics and water that caused life in the world, in addition to benefit all of mankind by finding out more about potentially dangerous asteroids.
From left to right, NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin, NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford, and University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, collect science information shortly after the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission landed. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
” Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx group on a picture-perfect objective– the first American asteroid sample return in history– which will deepen our understanding of the origin of our solar system and its development. Not to point out, Bennu is a potentially harmful asteroid, and what we find out from the sample will assist us much better understand the types of asteroids that might come our way,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With OSIRIS-REx, Psyche launch in a couple of weeks, DARTs 1 year anniversary, and Lucys first asteroid technique in November, Asteroid Autumn is in full swing.
From left to right, NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford, NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin, and University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, collect science data shortly after the sample return pill landed. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The Bennu sample– an approximated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams– will be transferred in its unopened cylinder by airplane to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday, September 25. Curation researchers there will disassemble the cylinder, extract and weigh the sample, produce a stock of the rocks and dust, and, over time, distribute pieces of Bennu to scientists worldwide.
Todays delivery of an asteroid sample– a first for the U.S.– went according to plan thanks to the massive effort of numerous individuals who remotely directed the spacecrafts journey considering that it launched on September 8, 2016. The group then assisted it to arrival at Bennu on December 3, 2018, through the search for a safe sample-collection site in between 2019 and 2020, sample collection on October 20, 2020, and throughout the return trip home starting on May 10, 2021.
From left to right, Lockheed Martin Mission Operations Assurance Lead Graham Miller, Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Michael Kaye, and Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Levi Hanish, prepare the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective for transport. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama connects the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transport to the cleanroom. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
” Today marks a remarkable milestone not simply for the OSIRIS-REx team but for science as a whole,” stated Dante Lauretta, principal detective for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Successfully providing samples from Bennu to Earth is a victory of collective ingenuity and a testament to what we can accomplish when we join with a typical purpose. However lets not forget– while this may feel like the end of an unbelievable chapter, its genuinely simply the start of another. We now have the extraordinary opportunity to examine these samples and dig much deeper into the secrets of our planetary system.”
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama connects the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transportation to the cleanroom. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama connects the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transportation to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, quickly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
After taking a trip billions of miles to Bennu and back, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released its sample capsule towards Earths atmosphere at 6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT). The spacecraft was 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) from Earths surface at the time– about one-third the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Taking a trip at 27,650 mph (44,500 kph), the pill pierced the environment at 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT), off the coast of California at an elevation of about 83 miles (133 kilometers). Within 10 minutes, it arrived at the military range. Along the way, 2 parachutes effectively released to slow the pill and stabilize to a gentle 11 miles per hour (18 kph) at goal.
The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission is seen en path to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is seen en path to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, soon after the capsule landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
” The whole group had butterflies today, however thats the concentrated anticipation of a vital occasion by a well-prepared group,” said Rich Burns, project supervisor for OSIRIS-REx at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “For us, this was the World Series, ninth inning, bases-loaded minute, and this group knocked it out of the park.”
The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is lowered into the parking lot in front of the cleanroom garage by helicopter, Sunday, September 24, 2023, shortly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission is reduced into the car park in front of the cleanroom garage by helicopter, Sunday, September 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Radar, infrared, and optical instruments in the air and on the ground tracked the pill to its landing coordinates inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) location on the range. Within a number of minutes, the healing team was dispatched to the pills place to inspect and recover it. The team discovered the pill in good shape at 9:07 a.m. MDT (11:07 a.m. EDT) and then determined it was safe to technique. Within 70 minutes, they wrapped it up for safe transport to a short-term tidy room on the variety, where it remains under constant guidance and a nitrogen purge.
Curation groups process the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission in a cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was gathered from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it shows up on Earth, will take location at NASA Johnson. International collaborations on this objective include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXAs (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASAs New Frontiers Program, handled by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the firms Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama attaches the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective to a helicopter for transportation to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, quickly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is seen en route to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, shortly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission is seen en route to the cleanroom, Sunday, September 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is reduced into the parking lot in front of the cleanroom hangar by helicopter, Sunday, September 24, 2023, soon after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective is decreased into the parking lot in front of the cleanroom garage by helicopter, Sunday, September 24, 2023, quickly after the pill landed at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range.