After seven years in space and almost three years since collecting its samples the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off the sample return capsule to Earth while on a flyby of the planet. The sample return capsule touched down in the Utah Test and Training Range with its samples from the asteroid Bennu. The sample return capsule is estimated to have two-hundred and fifty grams of samples.
This is the first asteroid sample return mission for NASA and the United States of America. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now starting its extended mission and will head to asteroid Apophis with the spacecraft now being called OSIRIS-APEX.
Once the samples arrive at Johnson Space Center, in Houston Texas, seventy percent of the samples will be preserved for future study, twenty-five percent of the samples distributed to the scientists on the OSIRIS-REx team, four percent will be given to the Canadian Space Agency, and point five percent will be given to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Why did OSIRIS-REx go to Bennu?
NASA sent OSIRIS-REx to asteroid Bennu as it is believed to act as a time capsule for the early years of the solar system and hopefully answers some questions about the origins of life as well as the nature of asteroids. NASA also states the following three main reasons for choosing Bennu;
The asteroid is a remnant from the tumultuous formation of the solar system, unlike any rocks we can find on Earth. On our planet, weather, erosion, and plate tectonics have wiped away evidence of Earth’s formation. Thus, Bennu’s rocks offer us insight into our own history – a time about 4.5 billion years ago when Earth was first forming.
Bennu is rich in organic compounds that make up all known life. There is evidence that asteroids like Bennu delivered these compounds to Earth when they smashed into our planet billions of years ago when the conditions for life were starting to emerge. Scientists want to learn more about this early period, and samples of a well-preserved asteroid could help them do that.
Most asteroids can be found in the asteroid belt, a ring of asteroids that circles the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid belt is very far away, so a round trip would take a long time and be much harder to do. Bennu, in contrast, crosses Earth’s orbit, so it was easier and quicker to send a spacecraft to Bennu and back.
Where to next for OSIRIS-REx?
After releasing the sample return capsule and performing a twenty-minute engine burn, OSIRIS-REx is now headed towards Asteroid Apophis and is now named OSIRIS-APEX. Asteroid Apophis is a near-Earth object believed to be three-hundred and forty meters across that will pass by Earth in April 2029 at a distance of twenty thousand miles.
OSIRIS-APEX will arrive at Apophis in 2029 after its earth flyby and will study the asteroid up close and will attempt to dislodge parts of the asteroid using its thrusters.