(KTVX) – DUGWAY, Utah (AP) – A stretch of desert that is a thirty-minute drive into the isolated Dugway Proving Grounds is currently awaiting the delivery of a one-of-a-kind present. A parcel whose delivery has been delayed for the past seven years.
FedEx or UPS is not delivering this cargo; rather, it is being sent from an asteroid named Bennu that is close to Earth and brought to its destination by the spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex.
The package is a big space capsule containing a sample container loaded with regolith (loose rocks and soil) from the asteroid's surface. The regolith was collected from the surface of the asteroid.
Launched on September 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is now travelling through the asteroid belt in the direction of Bennu with the hopes of eventually making contact with it and investigating it.
A year and a half was spent travelling to Bennu, and once it arrived, the spacecraft researched the asteroid and took pictures of it. After that, it landed on the asteroid for around five seconds before pushing off and taking a few more pictures before continuing its journey. Following that, the spaceship made its way back to Earth.
The sample capsule will be ejected from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on September 24 at roughly 4:45 in the morning, when it will be approximately 63,000 miles from Earth. The spacecraft is scheduled to enter the atmosphere of the Earth at 8:40 a.m., at which point it will race towards the surface at a speed of 27,650 miles per hour before releasing a series of parachutes designed to slow it down. It is expected to arrive at a speed of around 11 miles per hour somewhere in the landing location of the Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway.
On August 28, the NASA crews ready for the landing participated in their final test. Scientists and media members were given a tour of the landing site, an elliptical measuring 37 miles by 9 miles and covering an area of 250 square miles. They were also given a glimpse inside the "clean room" containing the sample while it was prepared for its voyage to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
The sample asteroid was selected for several reasons, the most important of which were its close closeness to the planet Earth and its abundance of carbon, which indicate that it may contain the chemical components necessary for life.
"We are looking at geological materials that formed before the earth even existed," recounts Dante Lauretta, the main investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission.
This sample is the first of its kind for NASA and is the largest asteroid sample ever brought to Earth. It is currently making its way to the desert of Utah. The United States of America has previously sent back samples of the moon, comets, and ions, but this is the first asteroid sample they have brought back. The enthusiasm of the participating scientists is through the roof.
"I wanted to be out there to greet these pieces of Bennu to our home planet," Lauretta said. "It is an honour to have them here." "to get them ready for the adventure we are about to put them on and to welcome them to the curation facility at Johnson Space Centre,"
Lauretta had an important part in the conception of the mission back in 2008, and she has devoted the entirety of the past 15 years to ensuring that OSIRIS-REx is a success. During the press conference a week ago, his excitement was infectious.
"We are going back to the beginning of the time when the solar system was created. We are looking for hints as to why the planet Earth can support life. "We think that all of those materials were brought by these carbon-rich asteroids very early in forming our planetary system," Lauretta said. "This rare jewel in outer space with oceans has a protective atmosphere, and we think these asteroids brought all those materials."
He said they hoped the sample would bring additional insights into the following questions: "What is life? Where did this idea come from? Why did it occur on Earth instead of some other planet?
Lauretta went on to explain that the components that made up Bennu were the ideal combination to provide solutions to various scientific problems.
"Because Bennu is so abundant in carbonaceous compounds, we believe that we are bringing back the material that literally may be representative of the seeds of life that these asteroids delivered at the beginning of our planet," Lauretta explained. "This led to this incredible biosphere, biological evolution, and to us being here today to look back on that amazing history."
Ultimately, scientific teams worldwide will curate, investigate, and investigate the sample further. Most of it will remain in the possession of NASA scientists, while the rest will be stored safely.
Canada and Japan will each receive a portion of the asteroid sample, and the remaining portion of the sample will be made accessible to the public so that scientists from all around the world can request it for research purposes.
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