{"id":10304,"date":"2023-09-24T22:35:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T14:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/osiris-rex-sample-return-capsule-safely-lands-in-utah\/"},"modified":"2023-09-24T22:35:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T14:35:01","slug":"osiris-rex-sample-return-capsule-safely-lands-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/osiris-rex-sample-return-capsule-safely-lands-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule safely lands in Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"4 billion-mile asteroid expedition for OSIRIS REx concludes with Sunday sample return\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d-0_yhjA9qI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth\u2019s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage.<\/p>\n<p>Released from the OSIRIS-REx mothership four hours earlier, the 110-pound 31-inch-wide sample return capsule, loaded with a half-pound of rocks and soil collected in 2020 from an asteroid known as Bennu, hit the top of the discernible atmosphere, 82 miles up, at a blistering 27,000 mph 10:42 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next two minutes, rapidly decelerating in a hellish blaze of atmospheric friction, the capsule\u2019s heat shield endured re-entry temperatures of more than 5,000 degrees and a braking force 32 times the force of gravity as it streaked toward landing at the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n<p>With scientists and engineers holding their collective breath \u2014 a similar capsule crash landed in Utah in 2004 when its parachutes failed to open \u2014 the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule survived its trial by fire and presumably deployed a stabilizing drogue parachute at an altitude of 20 miles.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63815\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63815\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63815\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-touchdown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-touchdown.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-touchdown-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63815\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sample return capsule from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx mission pictured on the desert floor, shortly after touching down. Its red and white striped parachute rests near by. Image: NASA\/Keegan Barber.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The capsule\u2019s 24-foot-wide main capsule was expected to unfurl and inflate at an altitude of 5,000 feet, but NASA said it actually deployed at 20,000 feet. That may have contributed to a slightly earlier-than-expected touchdown, but in any case, the main chute appeared to lower the sample return capsule to an expected 11-mph landing at 10:52 a.m. EDT, the final step in a nail-biting descent.<\/p>\n<p>Recovery crews from prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space and the Utah Test and Training Range were on the scene within minutes to document the condition of the capsule, looking for any signs of a breach that could cause contamination of the pristine samples inside.<\/p>\n<p>Also on hand: University of Arizona Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, part of a team assigned to collect nearby soil samples to thoroughly document the chemical makeup of the landing zone. Just in case.<\/p>\n<p>The recovery plan called for the team to haul the capsule to a temporary air-filtered \u201cclean room\u201d to begin disassembly and to make preparations to ship the hardware and the samples to an environmentally \u201cclean\u201d laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63809\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63809\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-SRC-examined.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-SRC-examined.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-SRC-examined-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right, NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford, NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin, and University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, examined the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule after it landed at the Department of Defense\u2019s Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023. Image: NASA\/Keegan Barber.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lauretta said the collected samples \u2014 the largest U.S. collection of extraterrestrial material since the Apollo moon program \u2014 are representative of the raw material that formed the sun and its retinue of planets 4.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going back to the dawn of the solar system, we\u2019re looking for clues as to why Earth is a habitable world, this rare jewel in outer space that has oceans, it has a protective atmosphere,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think all of those materials were brought (to Earth) by these carbon-rich asteroids very early in our planetary system formation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd of course, the biggest question, the one that drives my scientific investigations, is the origin of life. What is life? How did it originate? And why was the Earth the place that it occurred? \u2026 We believe that we\u2019re bringing back that kind of material, maybe representatives of the seeds of life that these asteroids delivered at the beginning of (Earth\u2019s history).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two Japanese spacecraft returned small samples from asteroids in 2010 and 2020, but OSIRIS-REx \u2014 a convoluted acronym that stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security Regolith Explorer \u2014 is the first such mission mounted by NASA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What you need to know about the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tg48UH4JFR0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After initial analysis in Houston, NASA will share samples of Bennu with researchers around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a gift to the world,\u201d Lauretta said. \u201cWe have laboratories on four continents, 16 timezones, hundreds of researchers, over 60 laboratories that have been getting ready to get this material, and we are ready to begin the final science campaign of the OSIRIS REx prime mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Equipped with three cameras, two spectrometers, a laser altimeter and an X-ray imaging system developed by college students, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and sample return capsule were launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 8, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>To reach Bennu, which orbits in a plane tilted six degrees from Earth\u2019s, OSIRIS-REx looped around the sun and then made a velocity-boosting gravity-assist flyby of Earth on Sept. 22, 2017. The spacecraft finally slipped into orbit around Bennu in late 2018.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63820\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63820\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-63820 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-sample-collection.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-sample-collection.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230924-OSIRIS-REx-sample-collection-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Captured on Oct. 20, 2020, during the OSIRIS-REx mission\u2019s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, these images show the moment before and after the NASA spacecraft touched down on asteroid Bennu\u2019s surface to collect a sample of the surface material. Images: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Scientists were stunned at what they found. Instead of a more typical body, with fine-grained soils and rocks atop a more or less solid interior, Bennu, about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall, turned out to be a loosely compacted rubble pile that behaved more like a fluid than a solid.<\/p>\n<p>After extensive mapping to identify a safe sample-collection point, OSIRIS-REx slowly descended toward the surface on Oct. 20, 2020, its pie pan-shaped \u201cTouch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism,\u201d or TAGSAM, poised at the end of an 11-foot-long robot arm.<\/p>\n<p>On contact, the probe fired a jet of nitrogen gas around the interior of the 12-inch-wide TAGSAM, stirring up the soil and small rocks underneath and blowing some of the material into collection filters before the spacecraft reversed course and backed away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt behaved very much like a fluid, there was no resistance to the downward motion of the spacecraft,\u201d Lauretta said in an interview. \u201cWe sank in about 50 centimeters (20 inches) and if we hadn\u2019t fired the back-away thrusters, I think we would have just gone right into the asteroid and disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After backing away from Bennu, the TAGSAM mechanism and its precious samples were stowed inside the OSIRIS-REx return capsule for the long flight back to Earth and Sunday\u2019s dramatic re-entry.<\/p>\n<p>After course corrections to line up on the Utah landing site, the OSIRIS-REx mothership released the sample return capsule at 6:42 a.m. EDT. With the capsule safely on its way, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters 20 minutes later, ensuring it would safely miss Earth by about 484 miles.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cdivert\u201d maneuver put the craft on course for a close encounter with the asteroid Apophis in 2029.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 1,200 feet across, Apophis will come within a scant 20,000 miles of Earth in 2029, a very near miss in astronomical terms. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, now known as the OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer, will brake into orbit around Apophis shortly after the asteroid\u2019s Earth flyby, kicking off extended observations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth\u2019s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage. Released from the OSIRIS-REx mothership four hours earlier, the 110-pound 31-inch-wide sample return capsule, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}