Entry Challenges and Preparations
Before it can do that, the samples protective capsule will stand up to temperatures twice as hot as lava, and the second-fastest speed ever achieved by a human-made object going into Earths atmosphere. After entering Earths environment at around 36 times the speed of noise, the pill might ultimately come across wind, rain, and other weather as it drops closer to the surface area. Regardless of weather condition, it will land in the Great Salt Lake Desert, a dry landscape known for its scorching summer temperature levels and its salt flats, the residues of an ancient lakebed where crusty salt deposits coat the ground.
While much of the focus will be on the technical elements of the landing and the spacecraft pill, a group of meteorologists and researchers will also be closely keeping an eye on the weather, which can considerably affect healing of the pill.
The objectives thrilling ending will take place on September 24, 2023, as a capsule containing the Bennu samples touches down in Utahs West Desert. Credit: NASA
” Before we released 7 years ago, the pill needed to be created for all the weather we thought were affordable for Utah in September,” said Eric Queen, a research study engineer with the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) group at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
While the sturdy capsule was developed to be resistant to things like lightning and ice, “winds are probably our biggest issue any time you land under parachute,” said Mark Johnson, who leads the EDL analysis for Lockheed Martin, in Littleton, Colorado. Thats due to the fact that wind speed and direction might affect where the capsule sets down within a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-km by 14-km) target in the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City.
Desert Conditions and Recovery Planning
The landing range is considered a “safe, regulated area,” stated Kenneth Getzandanner, OSIRIS-REx flight characteristics lead. “It was also the landing website for the Stardust mission, so there is heritage.”
Healing groups take part in field wedding rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective 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 and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Like Goopy Cement
The OSIRIS-REx group also thought a lot about conditions on the ground itself. Late summer is monsoon season in the desert, so heavy rains might saturate the silty ground. If off-road automobiles are needed to help helicopters find and transfer the pill, wet-cement-like mud would make driving challenging.
” We must know by the end of monsoon season just how much rainfall weve gotten and the condition of the salt flats,” stated Eric Nelson, a U.S. Army meteorologist supporting the objective. “A great sign is Bonneville Speed Week, a yearly racing event in August.” Given that it went off without a drawback, “were most likely fine.”
In assistance of the OSIRIS-REx objective, the team will release weather balloons in the days leading up to the landing. The single-use balloons soar to elevations around 60,000 feet, or 18,288 meters– about two times as high as a business jet flies. Rising 18 feet (5.5 m) per second, they transmit information on temperature level, humidity, pressure, and wind before bursting high up in the atmosphere. The objective will use these observations to estimate a most likely landing area on the variety.
A training model of the sample return capsule is seen during field wedding rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission, Tuesday, August 29, 2023, at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
How the Delivery Will Unfold
When it separates from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and then gets in Earths environment above the West Coast about 4 hours later, the last leg of the capsules long journey will begin. Traveling at hypersonic speeds, the approximately 100-pound (45 kg) pill will depend on a protective entry system that includes a heat guard made from a lightweight ablative material created at NASAs Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley and created to stand up to extreme temperature levels.
Radar and infrared tracking systems will follow the pill during descent. As it streaks eastward on the morning of September 24, a number of aircraft, including a high-altitude WB-57 research plane from NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston will track its journey with visual and thermal imaging systems.
The pill will be traveling at around 1,150 miles per hour (1,850 kph) when it releases its drogue parachute over the training variety. A round, main parachute will open closer to the ground to soften the landing. Unlike other styles, the round shape is less most likely to be captured by a breeze, increasing drag and stability as the pill comes down. This minimizes its chance of being blown off course, which might make it harder to find on the ground.
Once it touches down and is recuperated by a specialized team, the sample will be transferred to a special laboratory at Johnson, where it will be maintained and studied. The historical landing will be studied, too, in order to inform future space shipments.
” We are not forecasting anything that we do not normally anticipated, however there are going to be a lot of eyes on our little corner of the desert this fall,” Nelson noted. “Thats a bit more pressure than normal.”
NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall objective management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. International collaborations on this objective consist of the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science cooperation 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 agencys Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
OSIRIS-REx collected a half-pound sample from the surface area of asteroid Bennu in October 2020. The missions sample return capsule will land with aid of a parachute– like the training model revealed here in an August 30 test– on September 24 at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
NASAs OSIRIS-REx will release an asteroid sample capsule this September, aiming for a landing in the Great Salt Lake Desert, with groups prepared to deal with challenges during its descent and recovery.
This September, after taking a trip billions of miles through our solar system, NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will travel past Earth with an amazing delivery. As it passes, it will launch a mini-fridge size capsule consisting of a sample of primordial area rock gathered from an asteroid situated in between the orbits of Earth and Mars.
OSIRIS-REx — the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security– Regolith Explorer– is the first U.S. objective to collect a sample from an asteroid. Researchers hope the pristine product it collected from asteroid Bennu in 2020– about half a pound of debris and dust from the asteroids surface area– will provide a window into 4.5 billion years earlier when the Sun and planets were forming.
The missions sample return capsule will land with help of a parachute– like the training design shown here in an August 30 test– on September 24 at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. Before it can do that, the samples protective capsule will hold up against temperature levels twice as hot as lava, and the second-fastest velocity ever attained by a human-made item entering Earths atmosphere. The missions thrilling finale will take place on September 24, 2023, as a pill including the Bennu samples touches down in Utahs West Desert. Recovery groups participate in field wedding rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return pill from NASAs OSIRIS-REx objective at the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule will be taking a trip at around 1,150 miles per hour (1,850 kph) when it deploys its drogue parachute over the training range.
