Res Osirix of NASA
Current Situation:
- Recently, the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx from NASA touched down in Utah, USA. It has been on a seven-year journey to gather and return samples from an asteroid named Bennu.
- Bennu was not reached for over two years following OSIRIS-REx’s 2016 launch. After that, it took nearly as long to map the asteroid, locate a place to scrape, and gather roughly 250 grammes (8.8 ounces) of rock. After then, it started to return to Earth.
How will the samples from OSIRIS-REx reach Earth again?
- Over the Utah Great Salt Lake Desert, OSIRIS-REx launched a capsule containing the samples at a height of roughly 250 kilometres above Earth’s surface.
- To safely retrieve the capsule and deliver the samples to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, scientists have received the necessary training.
- But OSIRIS-REx is not done yet. After releasing its capsule, it will continue on its journey to Apophis, an asteroid that was formerly believed to be a dangerous impact threat to Earth but is now not, at least not for the next 100 years.
A sample return mission: what is it?
- Sample return missions deploy spacecraft to land on a planet, moon, asteroid, or other celestial body in order to gather samples of rock, minerals, and soil.
- Sample return missions are often robotic these days. However, NASA’s Apollo missions, which ran from 1969 to 1972, deployed people to gather rocks and soil from orbit.
- On Earth, the samples are examined in labs. However, some are also stored. For example, many of the Apollo samples were kept unopened and sealed because scientists and engineers believed that as technology advanced, they would be able to perform new and improved studies down the road.
What do we learn and why do scientists gather samples from space?
- Space samples provide information on early Earth history and life outside in our solar system.
- As the resources on Earth run out, some scientists and businesspeople believe asteroids will provide a source of minerals.
- Scientists hope to find evidence of water in the samples, which may contain atoms, molecules, complex chemicals, and, absurd as it may sound, solar wind or cometary debris particles.
Who is going to examine the Bennu samples?
- The beginnings of life as we know it today and the period when the sun and planets were formed, some 4.5 billion years ago, are both revealed by the samples that NASA has taken from the asteroid Bennu, according to NASA. It is believed that Bennu has a lot of carbon, a substance that is necessary for life.
- NASA has stated that it will divide the remaining samples among 200 mission members at 35 different universities worldwide, keeping 25% for its own use.
- Four percent of the samples will go to the Canadian Space Agency as part of the OSIRIS-REx project, as they donated a laser altimeter instrument.
- Additionally, as part of a collaboration, 0.5% of the samples will be given to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), a space agency in Japan.
- It’s not quite a quid pro quo, though, as JAXA has already given NASA 10% of its asteroid samples.
Previous missions that collected asteroid samples?
- Apart from NASA’s collection of around 382 kilogrammes (842 pounds) of rock and moon soil during the Apollo era moon landings, Soviet-era Russia sent out three successful robotic missions between 1969 and 1976 to obtain approximately 326 grammes (11 ounces) of samples.
- More recently, samples from the asteroid Itokawa were returned by humans for the first time thanks to JAXA’s Hayabusa mission, which ran from 2003 to 2010.
- Japan responded to that in 2020 with Hayabusa2, which brought back samples from the asteroid Ryugu.
- Additionally, China’s Chang’e 5 mission retrieved lunar samples in 2020.
Are there any upcoming sample return missions planned?
- The goal of Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is to return rocks from the Martian area as the first sample return mission.
- MMX is slated to launch in 2024 with the goal of studying Phobos, Deimos, and Mars’ moons and learning more about their creation.
- This is expected to contribute to scientists’ understanding of the formation of the solar system. In addition, MMX plans to return to Earth in 2029 with samples taken from Phobos, the larger of the two moons.
- In the meantime, NASA and the European Space Agency are working on a sample return mission from the surface of Mars that should return to Earth in 2033, provided all goes according to plan.
In summary:
- Consequently, sample return missions aid in understanding the universe’s composition and development while also demonstrating space agencies’ technological prowess for upcoming space missions.
