Q: First off: What a landing! As someone whos studied asteroids in depth, and from afar, what was it like for you to see a sample of this asteroid, returned to Earth?
A: I was holding my breath much like everybody else! The parachute opening was a substantial exhale, and the soft landing was a release of pleasure on behalf of the entire team. You deal with these individuals for so long, you end up being like family, so you feel whatever together. Sort of like seeing your kid ending up off their balance beam routine and sticking the landing. While I wasnt at the landing website, a lot of us were “together” online viewing the timeline and all the procedures. What a journey it has actually been, more than 20 years in the making, beginning with our telescopic identification of Bennu as a easily accessible and clinically abundant tasting target, and then with the numerous progressing styles of the mission. MIT trainee involvement with the REXIS instrument began in 2010. It took 6 years to reach the launch pad and now, lastly, we are seeing the mission actually come cycle in returning the sample to the Earth.
Q: The instruments aboard OSIRIS-REx made measurements of the asteroid while in orbit. What did those measurements in space expose about the asteroid? And what more do you hope researchers can reveal, now that a sample is back in the world?
Our instruments aboard OSIRIS-REx informed us that Bennu is carbon-rich, likely consisting of some of the earliest chemical records of the ingredients that made the Earth and even life itself. We can only be sure by protecting the “ground truth” provided through actual samples being brought into Earths laboratories. The lab analysis of these samples, verifying our preliminary findings, will validate our ability to analyze data about asteroids from both telescopes and orbiting spacecraft.
Q: Lets provide a shoutout to all the trainees who assisted to put an instrument aboard the mission. Going forward, how might this asteroid sample– and the spacecrafts continued trajectory– connect to the work at MIT?
A: Its a tip that the sky is no limitation for what we do at MIT., extended hundreds of millions of miles out in area, with real hardware the students both developed and constructed, that was flown further into area than any other MIT trainee job has actually gone before.
The sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, 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
Richard Binzel describes how asteroid dirt and dust provided by OSIRIS-Rex, with help from MIT, may expose ideas to the solar systems origins.
On the morning of September 24, a pill the size of a mini-fridge dropped from the skies over western Utah, bring a first-of-its-kind package: about 250 grams of dirt and dust plucked from the surface area of an asteroid. As a candy-striped parachute billowed open up to slow its freefall, the pill dropped down to the sand, a little ahead of schedule.
The unique shipment came thanks to OSIRIS-REx, the very first NASA mission to take a trip to an asteroid and return a sample of its contents to Earth. Released in 2016, the objectives target was Bennu, a “near-Earth” asteroid that is believed to have formed during the planetary systems very first 10 million years. The asteroid is made mostly of carbon and minerals, and has not been altered much because it formed. Samples from its surface could for that reason offer important hints about the type of minerals and materials that first came together to shape the early planetary system.
The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The unique delivery came courtesy of OSIRIS-REx, the very first NASA objective to take a trip to an asteroid and return a sample of its contents to Earth. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The shoebox-sized instrument was the work of more than 100 MIT trainees, who developed the instrument to map the asteroids surface product in X-rays, to assist identify where the spacecraft needs to take a sample. The samples effective return is a big turning point for the objectives members, including MITs Richard Binzel, a leading specialist in the study of asteroids, and a professor post-tenure in EAPS and AeroAstro.
The sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective 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
OSIRIS-REx journeyed for over two years to reach Bennu, where it then spent another 2 years circling and determining its surface, searching for a spot to select a sample. Amongst the suite of instruments aboard the spacecraft was an MIT-student-designed experiment, REXIS (the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer). The shoebox-sized instrument was the work of more than 100 MIT students, who developed the instrument to map the asteroids surface area material in X-rays, to assist figure out where the spacecraft needs to take a sample. REXIS is a joint job between the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), the Harvard College Observatory, the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
On September 24, OSIRIS-REx launched the capsule to fall through the Earths environment, as the spacecraft itself set off on a new course to the asteroid Apophis. The samples effective return is a huge milestone for the missions members, including MITs Richard Binzel, a leading specialist in the study of asteroids, and a teacher post-tenure in EAPS and AeroAstro.
