NASA’s OSIRIS-REX mission is preparing to bring the first sample of an asteroid collected by the United States space agency to Earth. The spacecraft should deliver the material next Sunday (24).
The space vehicle was launched on September 8, 2016 towards the asteroid Bennu, located close to our planet. According to the agency, the spacecraft collected around 250 grams of material from the rocky object in 2020.
In addition to being the first asteroid sample obtained by NASA, it is also the largest ever collected in space.
According to the agency, the asteroid is of great interest to the scientific community, because it is a remnant of the formation of the solar system. The expectation is that its analysis will provide unprecedented information about the formation of the Earth.
Furthermore, “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 collided with our planet billions of years ago, when the conditions for life were beginning to emerge,” NASA explained.
How will the sample be delivered?
OSIRIS-REX will not land on Earth to deliver the material obtained. The scientists’ idea, according to information released by NASA, is for the spacecraft to maintain its speed and the capsule that stores the sample to be released towards the Department of Defense’s Test and Training Field in Utah, USA.
The space probe, around 20 minutes after releasing the capsule, will use its thrusters to move away from Earth again towards the asteroid Apophis. From then on, the mission will be called OSIRIS-APEX.
After being launched by the spacecraft, the capsule will travel through space for about four hours until it pierces the Earth’s atmosphere. From this point to reaching the ground, it takes an estimated 13 minutes. Entry into the atmosphere is scheduled for 11:42 am, Brasília time.
Scientists will recover the material in the shortest possible time to prevent it from being contaminated. “They will place the capsule in a metal box and wrap it in several sheets of non-reactive plastic material and then in a tarp. A harness will then be placed over the crate. The box will be attached to a cable attached to a helicopter,” NASA explained in a statement.
The sample will then be taken to a temporary room at the training ground until it is sent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Source: CNN Brasil
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