NASA's OSIRIS-REx space shuttle plummeted to Earth on Sunday, seven years after it was launched into space
NASA's Bennu mission has sent a piece of a huge space rock that may one day crash into Earth, allowing specialists to study the evolution of the planetary group, a feat the organization has never achieved.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth on Sunday, seven years after it was sent into space to provide a perfect example of the nearby Bennu space rock.
Bennu space rock.
Beginnings, Terrible Understanding, Asset-Recognizable Proof, Security, and Regolith Traveler (OSIRIS-REx) was launched in 2016 and began orbiting Bennu in 2018. The example was picked up by the rocket in 2020 and began its rather long journey back to Earth. in May 2021.
As early as Sunday, the shuttle dropped a sample case from a level of 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. The case contained the expected 8.8 ounces of space rock and soil shocks and entered the planet's atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. ET, traveling at approximately 27,650 miles per hour.
"Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx team. You did it," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "It delivered something extraordinary, the biggest space rock test ever on the planet. This mission shows that NASA is doing huge things, things that excite us, things that bring us together. It was not an unimaginable mission. It was unimaginable that have become conceivable," CNN reported.
The OSIRIS-REx close planet survey mission is still ongoing. The shuttle had earlier begun exploring another space rock called Apophis.
OSIRIS-Peak, which stands for Starting points, Ghostly Translation, Asset ID, Security-APophis Pilgrim, is the new mission name.
According to Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space, which partnered with NASA to support the shuttle's operations, provided flight activities and assisted with the recovery of the 100-pound pod. These groups have been rehearsing for this opportunity for a really long time.
As the temperature of the pod reached up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) during the reentry, the core recovery team ensured it was cool enough to touch while wearing protective gloves and a veil. The group also ensured that the case's batteries did not rupture and release any hazardous gases.
The scientific team conducted tests of air, residues and soil from the arrival site.
"One of the fundamental logical goals of OSIRIS-REx is to return a perfect example and a flawless way that no unknown materials impede our investigation during testing," said Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator of OSIRIS-REx at the College of Arizona in Tucson. "As impossible as it seems, we would like to ensure that all materials that are in the Utah area that could work with the example are verified and factual."
In any case, Lauretta can clearly judge when it was first mentioned in the NASA proposal, since she began to deal with this task almost a long time ago. Lauretta was there at every stage of the cycle, including the assembly and attachment of the case to the shuttle prior to shipment. On Sunday, he was among the director to move to the container after he arrived to welcome it.
"It was like seeing a close friend you haven't seen in a long time," he said. "I needed to embrace it. One of the most important moments for me was seeing that. I realized that we did it, that we did it. What seemed like a long time ago, it happened."
According to Nicole Lunning, chief curator of OSIRIS-REx at NASA's Johnson Space Cente
The example was transported to a clean room near the arrivals area by helicopter while enclosed in a cargo net. A stream of nitrogen, known as a purge, will be completed in this area by a group of curators to prevent any of Earth's climate from entering and contaminating the sample vessel. According to Nicole Lunning, chief curator of OSIRIS-REx at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the largest pieces of the case will be removed.
On Monday, the assembly will prepare the sample canister for a trip to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on a C-17 aircraft. On Tuesday, the scientists intend to open the cover and have an interesting look at the example.
The recovery team will look at all the video evidence of the dive to check that the parachute that was used to balance the case at the start was delivered immediately. The group saw no visual confirmation of when it should be delivered. The necessary parachute to release the container back to protected landing speed also opened earlier than expected.
"Anyway, by the end of the day, when he sent that main chute, he basically righted all the bad deeds that could have happened before him," said Tim Priser, chief engineer for deep space investigations at Lockheed Martin. “It touched like a quill.
On October 11, NASA will broadcast a webcast from the Johnson Space Center with data related to this example. Researchers expect to collect some fine-grained material from the highest point of the canister on Tuesday for a quick assessment that may be done in October, despite the fact that they won't have enough opportunity to fully assess the example, Lauretta said. . As he said, the basic assessment will check for the presence of minerals and synthetic ingredients.
In a specific clean room at the Johnson Space Center, specialists will look at rocks and soil over the next two years. In addition, the example will be separated and expanded to other test offices around the world, remembering teammates from the OSIRIS-REx mission at the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In order for people to learn much more in the future with further developed innovations than is currently feasible, approximately 70% of the examples will remain flawless.
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