On May 10, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will leave the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and begin a trip nearly three years ago to Earth, NASA officials announced this week seo.
The spacecraft, formally known as the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, is carrying a large sample that it collected from the surface of the asteroid in October. The goal of the mission was to collect 60 grams or 2 ounces of material – and while the scientists will not know for sure until they open it, the gathering event seems to have exceeded this goal. Regolith is a layer of dust and broken rocks on the surface of asteroids and planets.
The sample from the asteroid could shed more light on the formation of the solar system and how elements such as water could be delivered early on Earth with effects from the rocky remains.
When OSIRIS-REx leaves Bennu in May, it will begin its 200 million mile journey back to Earth. He is expected to deliver the sample to Earth on September 24, 2023.
The spacecraft first arrived for a close look at Bennu in 2018 and has been orbiting the asteroid ever since. And he’s going to take one last look at the asteroid before the spacecraft succeeds with its single companion in space for the past few years.
In April, the spacecraft makes a final flyby of the asteroid to see how the attachment of the spacecraft to Bennu ‘s surface could change at the sample collection site.
Initially, OSIRIS-REx planned to leave Bennu in March.
“Leaving Bennu’s neighborhood in May puts us in the‘ sweet spot, ’when the move eats away the minimum amount of spacecraft fuel,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS deputy project manager- REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.
“Nevertheless, with over 593 miles per hour (265 meters per second) of speed change, this is the largest mobile move made by OSIRIS-REx from the approach to Bennu in October 2018.”
Flyby in early April was not part of the mission, so leaving in May will take longer for this last scene.
If all goes according to plan, OSIRIS-REx will fly over the sample site, called Nightingale, from two miles away.
When the sample collection head on the spacecraft’s arm reached the surface of the asteroid in October, it sank about 1.6 feet below the material sitting on the asteroid. This was the TAG, or Touch and Go event.
The spacecraft also fired at the thrushes to return safely away from the asteroid.
Both of these events apparently kicked material on the surface of the asteroid and altered the appearance of the Nightingale site.
This flyby will be similar to the thoughtful OSIRIS-REx ones that Bennu made for about a year before the mission team decided on the right place to land and collect a sample.
The spacecraft monitors the full movement of Bennu, including the northern and southern hemispheres and the equator, and these images can be compared to the images he collected. in 2019.
The flyby is also a good test for the scientific instruments on OSIRIS-REx, which may be covered in dust during the sample collection. The spacecraft could have a future if everything works out in order as it releases the sample to Earth, not back on the planet.
As soon as OSIRIS-REx approaches the Earth in 2023, it will lower the capsule containing the sample, which will burn through the Earth ‘s atmosphere and parachute down into the Utah desert.
Crews will be ready to retrieve the sample from an aircraft hangar which will be a temporary clean room. The sample will then be taken to laboratories currently under construction at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“OSIRIS-REx has already provided incredible science,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that the mission is designing one more observational flyby of Bennu’s asteroid to provide new information on how the asteroid responded to TAG and say goodbye. “