UA-led spacecraft with sample from ancient asteroid to return to Earth this fall
A capsule containing a specimen from an ancient asteroid is set to land on Earth on Sept. 24 from the first U.S. spacecraft to embark on such a mission. The sample could contain important data about how life evolved on Earth and help scientists better understand asteroids and how to deflect them.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission, led by the University of Arizona, launched OSIRIS-REx, an unmanned spacecraft, in 2016 to collect a sample from Bennu, an ancient asteroid billions of years old.
What is OSIRIS-REx?
OSIRIS-REx, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, landed on Bennu on Dec. 3, 2018, to collect a sample of the asteroid's surface, consisting of loose soil and rocky material.
What do scientists hope to learn from the mission?
Scientists would like to learn more about the origins of Earth and how to protect Earth from potential future collisions.
OSIRIS-REx: 5 things to know about the mission headed by UA professor
What will happen before and during the landing?
The sample capsule will parachute down to Earth, landing in the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
To prepare for the landing, a drop test of the sample capsule will be conducted from about 5,000 feet to review recovery efforts.
On Sept. 24, the capsule will land and be taken by helicopter to a pop-up cleanroom.
How can the public view the landing?
On Sept. 24, the capsule with the sample will parachute down to Earth. The landing will be broadcast at 7 a.m. Arizona time (8 a.m. MDT), air on NASA TV and stream on the NASA app and the agency’s website.
What will the process to open the capsule entail?
On Sept. 25, the capsule will be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where the canister will be opened over several days.
On the first day, the lid will be taken off. Then on the following day, the base plate will be removed. On the last day, the curation team will open the canister, revealing the contents of the sample.
How will the public be able to view the capsule’s contents?
On Oct. 11, NASA will reveal the sample to media at NASA's OSIRIS-REx Curation Laboratory at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The university is leading the science team while Lockheed Martin Space, who built the spacecraft, will be responsible for the capsule recovery.
What is Bennu?
Bennu is a carbon-rich near-earth asteroid that could contain information about the origins of life. It measures one-third of a mile wide at its equator and has an orbital distance from the Sun of about 105 million miles.
Scientists calculated that Bennu formed within the first 10 million years of Earth's solar system’s history.
Could Bennu collide with Earth?
As one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, it could collide with Earth late in the 22nd century, driving scientists to learn more about the asteroid to potentially mitigate a future collision.
According to NASA, the risk is small, with just a 1-in-2,700 chance that the asteroid could impact the Earth in the next century.
Reach the reporter at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com. The Republic’s coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. To support regional Arizona news coverage like this, make a tax deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: OSIRIS-REx capsule with ancient asteroid sample to return this fall
