NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) is all set to bring the first asteroid sample collected in space by NASA to Earth on September 24, 2023.
Launched on September 8, 2023, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft travelled to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface.
The spacecraft will be releasing a mini-fridge size capsule carrying the pieces from Bennu over Earth’s atmosphere. This capsule will parachute to the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, where the OSIRIS-REx team will be waiting to retrieve it.
Yesterday, the US space agency said that the spacecraft was about 2.8 million kilometers away, traveling at about 23,000 kilometres per hour toward Earth.
On September 17, the spacecraft’s trajectory was shifted in order to refine the landing location of the sample capsule. The spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters to change its velocity by 7 inches per minute relative to Earth.
What do scientists hope to find?
The scientists at NASA are hoping that the material the spacecraft collected from Bennu in 2020, nearly half a pound of rubble and dust from its surface, will give an insight into 4.5 billion years ago when the Sun and planets were forming.
Before the capsule carrying the sample lands, it will withstand temperatures hotter than lava, and the second-fastest velocity ever achieved by a human-made object entering Earth’s atmosphere. Entering the atmosphere at around 36 times the speed of sound, the capsule will eventually face wind, rain and other weather conditions as it comes closer to the surface.