NASA plans on dropping off a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The sample was taken from an asteroid called Bennu in October 2020, using NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft which was launched in September 2016. After seven months, the spacecraft started its journey toward Earth, according to DigitalTrends.
To keep the OSIRIS-REx in the right path, it must be maneuvered from time to time, and they just did so this week. If all things go well, the sample will arrive on Earth in September 2023.
How Exactly Will They Guide It?
KinetX Inc., the company in charge of navigating the spacecraft, will be maneuvering it so the OSIRIS-REx would cross Earth's orbit at the same time that the Earth is at that location. Once that has been established, the spacecraft will shoot a capsule out that contains the asteroid samples. The spacecraft cannot land on its own since it will not survive the heat and friction brought by the Earth's atmosphere.
Even with that task, they will need extreme precision. According to Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx's deputy manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the capsule should be angled just right. If it's too high, then it will skip off the atmosphere, and if it's too low, it will burn up as it lands.
Once the capsule has been released, it will be slowed down by a parachute. The target location for landing is the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range, which is located in the Great Salt Lake Desert. The Air Force will collect the sample and the Army will take it to facilities for scientific investigations.
Read Also: Is Asteroid Bennu Hitting Earth? Scientist Prediction, Date, and NASA Asteroid Deflector
The Maneuver
They will be gradually maneuvering the spacecraft for a year. This will make sure that by December, the OSIRIS-REx will be at the correct location by September. Further navigation is already scheduled for July 2023.
Following last month's adjustments, the spacecraft would pass around 1,367 miles from Earth. After the scheduled maneuvers next year in 2023, the proximity will change to 155 miles off the surface, which is just close enough to eject the capsule for a precision landing, according to NASA's official website.
The Samples
Since asteroids hold information about the history of our solar system, studying would provide further information for us. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston has already built a curation lab specifically for the storage of the sample.
Gloveboxes, tools, and storage containers that would preserve the sample in pristine condition are already being designed by engineers and curation experts. Johnson will then oversee the distribution so scientists from all over the world may study it as well.
The will also be a preservation of the samples, so they can be studied in the future. This was also done with Apollo Moon samples, which has been obtained from the moon decades ago. They are currently being opened now that we have the proper technology to examine them.
