A weather briefing today predicted a dry Sept. 24 with low winds. These are optimal conditions for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample recovery team: A wet and windy day would have made a speedy capsule recovery from the desert floor of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range more difficult.
The OSIRIS-REx team will continue monitoring the weather on Sunday via balloons, the first to be released at 5 a.m. EDT (3 a.m. MDT), which will soar to around 60,000 feet above the military range to measure local temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind.
The Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range is seen, Monday, July 17, 2023. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
This morning, team members packed their supplies for the field and loaded their gear onto the helicopters and vehicles they’ll use Sunday morning to travel to the capsule’s landing location.
NASA’s live coverage of the OSIRIS-REx capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT) on Sunday, Sept. 24, and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
On Sept. 17, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx engineers slightly shifted the spacecraft’s trajectory to refine the landing location of its sample capsule, which the spacecraft will deliver to Earth on Sept. 24. The spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters Sunday to change its velocity by 7 inches per minute (3 millimeters per second) relative to Earth.
This final correction maneuver moved the sample capsule’s predicted landing location east by nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, to the center of its predetermined landing zone inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range.
Sunday’s maneuver was a tweak of a critical maneuver on Sept. 10, which set the spacecraft on course to release its sample capsule, with rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu, from 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface this weekend.
The spacecraft is currently about 1.8 million miles, or 2.8 million kilometers, away, traveling at about 14,000 mph (about 23,000 kph) toward Earth.
Calling all music buffs! This one’s for you. We’re gearing up for the Sept. 24 landing of NASA’s first asteroid sample and we want you to provide the soundtrack. Your song requests could be featured during a week of live episodes on Third Rock Radio and on the official Return of the Rock playlists. Third Rock Radio is a NASA- and space-themed online radio station.
From Sept. 18 to 22, Third Rock Radio will host daily OSIRIS-REx-themed shows from 3-5 p.m. EDT featuring your song suggestions on themes related to NASA’s daredevil mission. Third Rock Radio is produced and published by Houston-based RFC Media under a Space Act Agreement with NASA.
You can submit your song requests at Third Rock Radio or on NASA’s social media. Your name or social media handle and your song suggestion could end up on Third Rock Radio!
The daily themes are:
Monday, Sept. 18: Road Trip
Space is big and interplanetary travel takes a long time. OSIRIS-REx launched on Sept. 8, 2016, collected an asteroid sample in 2020, and now is returning to Earth to deliver the sample on Sept. 24. If you were riding along with OSIRIS-REx, what songs would you play to pass the time while you travel?
Tuesday, Sept. 19: Give Me the Rock
Asteroid Bennu is a rubble-pile asteroid, an amalgamation of rocks and dust held loosely together by microgravity. After OSIRIS-REx collected a sample from asteroid Bennu’s surface, scientists discovered that the asteroid was so loosely packed that if a person were to step onto it they would feel as if they were stepping into a child’s ball pit. To honor this rocky world, name a song that ROCKS!
Wednesday, Sept. 20: Time
On Sept. 24, OSIRIS-REx will deliver a capsule containing rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu that could be more than 4.5 billion years old. These rocks are a time capsule from the dawn of our solar system. Share your favorite songs related to time.
Thursday, Sept. 21: The Power of Science
From signs of ancient water on Bennu to particles spewing from its surface, OSIRIS-REx discoveries continue to surprise us. What surprises will we learn when scientists worldwide analyze the asteroid sample in their labs? Give us a song that is science related, or about inventions, discoveries, or anything else that gets you jazzed about the solar system!
Friday, Sept. 22: The Final Countdown
OSIRIS-REx is almost here with the asteroid sample! In these final moments, we need a soundtrack to pump us up and celebrate the hard work that has gone into this historic sample return mission.
The rules:
Songs with explicit titles, lyrics and themes will not be played on air or appear in the playlists.
Third Rock Radio has the flexibility to select which songs will air from the submissions. Third Rock Radio does not guarantee to play any specific song. Want to know if your submission made the cut? Don’t miss the live shows!
On Sept. 10, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly fired its ACS (attitude control system) thrusters to point itself toward Earth, putting it on course to release its sample capsule, carrying rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu, from 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface on Sunday, Sept. 24.
Yesterday’s trajectory-correction maneuver changed the spacecraft’s velocity about a ½ mph (less than 1 kph) relative to Earth. Without this tiny but critical shift, the spacecraft and its asteroid cargo would have flown past Earth.
This graphic shows the Earth return trajectory for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and for the sample capsule, after the spacecraft releases it above Earth on Sept. 24. The yellow diamonds indicate the dates of spacecraft maneuvers that slightly adjust its trajectory to get it closer, and then pointing at, and then above Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
But now, the spacecraft is set up to release the capsule to enter the atmosphere just off the coast of California at 8:42 a.m. MDT / 10:42 a.m. EDT.
Traveling at a precise speed and angle, it will land approximately 13 minutes after release in a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) predetermined area on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range southwest of Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, about 20 minutes after releasing the sample capsule, the spacecraft will fire its engines to divert past Earth and onto its next mission to asteroid Apophis: OSIRIS-APEX (OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer).
OSIRIS-REx may fire its thrusters again on Sept. 17 if engineers determine that one final adjustment to its trajectory is necessary before it releases its capsule a week later.
The spacecraft is currently 4 million miles, or 7 million kilometers, away, traveling at about 14,000 mph (about 23,000 kph) toward Earth.
Early morning on Sunday, Sept. 24, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample capsule will come face-to-face with Earth’s atmosphere for the first time since the mission’s 2016 launch. On board are an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of rocky material collected from the surface of Bennu in 2020 – NASA’s first asteroid sample and the largest ever collected in space.
When it approaches Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft won’t slow down as it makes its sample drop-off. Instead, when it reaches 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface – about one-third the distance from Earth to the Moon – a message from operators on the ground will trigger the capsule’s release and the capsule will be sent spinning toward the atmosphere below. Twenty minutes after the drop-off, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters to divert past Earth toward asteroid Apophis, where it will continue investigating our solar system under a new name: OSIRIS-APEX (OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer).
Meanwhile, after zooming through space for four hours, the capsule will pierce Earth’s atmosphere at 8:42 a.m. MDT (10:42 a.m. EDT), traveling about 27,650 mph (44,500 kph). At this pace, the compression of Earth’s atmosphere will produce enough energy to envelop the capsule in a superheated ball of fire. A heat shield will help to regulate the temperature inside the capsule, keeping the sample safe at a temperature similar to that of Bennu’s surface.
Parachutes will bring the capsule’s descent to a safe landing speed. A drogue parachute designed to provide a stable transition to subsonic speeds will deploy first, about 2 minutes after the capsule enters the atmosphere. Six minutes later – at about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) above the desert – the main chute will unfurl, carrying the capsule the rest of the way to a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the military range. At touchdown, the capsule will have slowed to about 11 mph (18 kph).
Finally, just 13 minutes after entering the atmosphere, the capsule will be on Earth for the first time in seven years, awaiting the recovery team’s approach.
This graphic shows the events that happen between the time the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releases its sample capsule to the time it lands in the Utah desert. Credit: Lockheed Martin.
About 20 minutes before the capsule lands, when it is still high above the veil of Earth’s atmosphere, the recovery field team will board four helicopters and head out into the desert. The infrared glow of the capsule’s heat signature will be tracked by thermal instruments until the capsule becomes visible to optical instruments, giving the recovery team a way to trace the capsule’s Earthbound path. The goal for the recovery team is to retrieve the capsule from the ground as quickly as possible to avoid contaminating the sample with Earth’s environment.
Once located and packaged for travel, the capsule will be flown via helicopter longline to a temporary clean room on the military range, where it will undergo initial processing and disassembly in preparation for its journey by aircraft to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the sample will be documented, cared for, and distributed for analysis to scientists worldwide.
Though there are only 24 days left until the mission’s seven-year journey comes to its climactic end, the mood of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team is calm. After months of rehearsals, it was clear during the final dress rehearsal this week in Utah that the team has mastered the intricate steps required to retrieve the sample of asteroid Bennu after it lands on Earth on Sept. 24.
On Aug. 28 – 30, OSIRIS-REx team members simulated the procedures they will follow next month to navigate the spacecraft to Earth, instruct it to release the capsule carrying the asteroid sample, monitor the capsule as it flies through the atmosphere onto a predetermined landing ellipse at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, quickly retrieve it from the ground to prevent contamination from Earth’s environment, and transport it by helicopter to a temporary clean room on the range.
Here are a few highlights:
A capsule descends toward the ground under a parachute on Aug. 30, 2023. A helicopter dropped a replica of the sample capsule, on its way back to Earth aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, from 7,000 feet above the surface of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range as part of the final rehearsal the mission held this week before the real sample capsule lands on the Utah range on Sept. 24. Infrared, radar, and optical instruments on the ground and on airplanes practiced tracking the mock capsule’s descent in preparation for the real capsule descent and landing next month. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.On Aug. 30, 2023, the OSIRIS-REx team held their final rehearsal before a sample of asteroid Bennu lands on Earth on Sept. 24. Pictured here are capsule recovery team members of from OSIRIS-REx and from the military packing up a mock capsule. The capsule had just been delivered to this location by helicopter. About 30 minutes beforehand, the helicopter had dropped the capsule from 7,000 feet above the surface of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule descended by parachute to the ground, while infrared, radar, and optical instruments on the ground and on airplanes practiced tracking its descent, as they will do when the real capsule lands next month. Credit: NASA/Molly Wasser.The principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Dante Lauretta (third from left), huddles with team members on Aug. 29, 2023. The team is preparing to board helicopters on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range that will fly them to the site on the range where a mock sample capsule had been placed the day before. Once at the simulated landing site, Lauretta and the rest of the capsule recovery team practiced the procedures designed to locate, approach, pack up, and fly the capsule to a temporary clean room on the range. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.Staff from the OSIRIS-REx communications team, seated in the top right, along with members of the Air Force’s 2nd Audiovisual Squadron, behind the cameras, set up for a television broadcast. The Sept. 24 broadcast will cover the arrival of a capsule containing a sample of asteroid Bennu, including the capsule descent through Earth’s atmosphere, landing on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, pickup from the ground, and transport to a temporary clean room on the range. Tune in to NASA TV or NASA.gov on Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. EDT / 8 a.m. MTD. Image taken on Aug. 27, 2023. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.
By Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx Program Manager, Lockheed Martin
On Sept. 24, samples of asteroid Bennu will arrive on Earth, thanks to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and its mission to obtain fragments of this rocky body. The flight portion of the mission, many years in the making, will end when its sample return capsule lands in the Utah desert and is safely recovered by our team.
Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx Program Manager, Lockheed Martin Space. Credit: Lockheed.
So far, the OSIRIS-REx mission is well on track, but we must plan for several possible scenarios to ensure sample delivery is a success. We do this by conducting rehearsals in the months leading up to capsule landing. These rehearsals involve the flight team responsible for instructing the spacecraft to release the capsule, as well as the recovery team responsible for getting the capsule from the Utah desert and into the protection of a clean room.
We practice beforehand to optimize accuracy and minimize the chances of mistakes during the capsule’s Earth arrival. By simulating different scenarios, our team can anticipate challenges and work through contingency plans to effectively address them.
As the OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado, I oversee our flight team and work with our recovery team lead to ensure that we are ready for any deviations to the anticipated release and recovery of the sample.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 24, the team will send commands to the spacecraft to release the sample capsule. Though we expect everything to go according to plan, complications could happen, as is true with any space mission, so we must anticipate potential issues with the spacecraft or sample-return capsule hardware, or possible software errors.
To challenge the team, our operational readiness test coordinator from NASA throws curveballs at us during rehearsals. For instance, the team recently rehearsed a situation where the spacecraft unexpectedly rebooted and went into safe mode, which is when all non-essential systems shut down to preserve the spacecraft’s health. The team practiced bringing the spacecraft out of safe mode, which includes re-establishing high-rate communications, reloading files onto it – not unlike when you get a new phone and need to re-add your apps and contacts – and reconfiguring it for regular operations.
OSIRIS-REx team members celebrate the successful collection of a sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu. Oct. 20, 2020. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
We’ve also simulated network outages in the Mission Support Area at Lockheed Martin, where we couldn’t communicate with the spacecraft and had to transfer control to our backup crew at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
By rehearsing these kinds of scenarios as part of our standard preparation process, the team is working together to problem-solve and prepare for anything that comes our way. These rehearsals maximize the chances of a successful recovery and ensure the ideal preservation of the precious asteroid sample.
I am confident in the engineering of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and in the team’s abilities to adapt to any situation, and I cannot wait to see them in action in September as we get the sample capsule to Earth following its epic journey to asteroid Bennu.
On July 18-20, the team behind NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission rehearsed recovering a mock sample return capsule from the location where the real one, with fragments of asteroid Bennu, will land on Sept. 24: the Utah desert.
Though the team has rehearsed portions of the recovery operation many times this year, this was the most realistic rehearsal yet, taking place at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Salt Lake City. Besides taking place at the real landing location, the rehearsal included helicopter training for the OSIRIS-REx team members who will fly by helicopter to retrieve the sample capsule from its landing site inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) ellipse on the military range.
Here are a few highlights from the rehearsal:
OSIRIS-REx team members practice collecting soil samples on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. On July 18-20, 2023, the team rehearsed retrieving a mock sample capsule at the location where the real one, with samples of asteroid Bennu, will land on Sept. 24. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from Bennu in October 2020 and has been traveling back to Earth with it since May 2021. This picture was taken on Tuesday, July 18. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.OSIRIS-REx team members practice getting a mock sample capsule packed for its helicopter flight to a clean room on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. On July 18-20, 2023, the team rehearsed retrieving a mock sample capsule at the location where the real one, with samples of asteroid Bennu, will land on Sept. 24. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from Bennu in October 2020 and has been traveling back to Earth with it since May 2021. This picture was taken on Wednesday, July 19. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.A military representative checks the mock sample capsule’s landing site for unexploded ordnance. He will be the first person to approach the real capsule, with samples of asteroid Bennu, when it lands at the at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24. This picture was taken on Tuesday, July 18, at the OSIRIS-REx team’s rehearsal in Utah, which took place July 18-20, 2023. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from Bennu in October 2020 and has been traveling back to Earth with it since May 2021. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.A helicopter practices transporting a mock sample capsule, packed for travel, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. On July 18-20, 2023, the team rehearsed retrieving a mock sample capsule at the location where the real one, with samples of asteroid Bennu, will land on Sept. 24. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from Bennu in October 2020 and has been traveling back to Earth with it since May 2021. This picture was taken on Wednesday, July 19. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber.
When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releases a capsule with material from asteroid Bennu onto the Utah desert on Sept. 24, it will become the latest in a line of missions to gather samples from space and deliver them to Earth. Collecting material from space is a challenging feat that requires teams of dedicated scientists and engineers, innovative technology, and patience. But the scientific breakthroughs these samples unlock make the effort worthwhile as we attempt to understand the origins of our planet and the life that thrives here.
The practice of retrieving samples from space began in 1969 with NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, the first to land astronauts on the Moon. Many more sample-gathering missions to the Moon and beyond followed, growing in ambition with each passing decade. Here is an overview of the history and future of missions, organized by NASA and its partners, to bring home pieces of space.
1969: NASA’s Moonwalk Delivers First Space Samples
This photograph, taken during the second Apollo 12 extravehicular activity, shows two NASA spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. The Apollo 12 Lunar Module is in the background. The uncrewed Surveyor 3 spacecraft is in the foreground. Credit: NASA
NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous line, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” commemorated humanity’s first footsteps on a world beyond Earth. It also launched a new era of science, engineering, and exploration. Apollo astronauts collected and returned 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of rocks and dust across six missions. Because Moon rocks are better preserved than Earth rocks, they offered unprecedented insight into how our planet and solar system formed – a history largely erased on Earth by erosion, climate cycles, volcanic activity, and plate tectonics. Among many other things, Apollo samples revealed that the makeup of the Moon and Earth are so similar the two likely formed from the same material. This finding led scientists to theorize that the Moon formed from rock and metal that flung off a collision between a young Earth and a Mars-size object about 4.5 billion years ago.
2004: Genesis Grabs Solar Wind
An artist’s rendering of solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles continually released from the Sun. Credit: NASA
NASA’s Genesis spacecraft delivered the first samples from beyond the orbit of the Moon in 2004. Placed for more than two years in a gravitationally stable point between the Earth and Sun, the spacecraft collected charged particles streaming out from the Sun, called the solar wind. Scientists wanted to study these particles because they are thought to reflect the chemical composition of the solar system when it was just forming nearly 4.6 billion years ago. After analyzing the sample scientists were surprised to see that Sun particles had different versions, or isotopes, of oxygen and nitrogen compared to Earth. They had expected the Sun and planets to have similar isotopic signatures since everything in the solar system formed from the same cloud of gas and dust, called the solar nebula. One reason for the difference may be that Earth and the rest of the rocky, inner planets formed from the dust of the nebula, whereas the Sun formed from both gas and dust.
2006: Collecting a Comet’s Dusty Halo
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of comet ISON, wrapped in a dusty halo, streaking through the sky in April 2013. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
In 2006, NASA’s Stardust mission became the first to collect comet samples and deliver them to Earth. Like the name suggests, Stardust captured dust particles – 10,000 of them – from the halo of dust and gas, called a coma, surrounding comet Wild 2. Scientists made some key discoveries after analyzing bits of Wild 2. Among them was the first detection of glycine in a comet. Glycine is an amino acid, which is a fundamental building block of Earth life. Finding glycine in comet dust supported the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth – and possibly other worlds – by comets and asteroids.
2010 & 2020: Going to the Source for History of Solar System
Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, has some similarities with asteroid Ryugu, the target of JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission — but the two asteroids have their differences, too. After OSIRIS-REx returns a sample of Bennu on Sept. 24, scientists will have a chance to compare and contrast the two asteroids in their labs. Credit: University of Arizona
Asteroid dust – older and better preserved than any material on Earth – offers scientists a window into the birth of the solar system. The first studies of asteroid samples were made possible by JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), when its Hayabusa spacecraft returned in 2010 with thousands of particles from asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa2 followed with 0.2 ounces, or 5.4 grams, of asteroid Ryugu in 2020, far exceeding mission requirements. Itokawa and Ryugu samples revealed the structure and chemical composition of “rubble pile” asteroids, which are made of rocks and boulders loosely held together by gravity. The samples also showed that some asteroids, as predicted, contain organic molecules, which could be some of the building blocks of all known life forms. Soon, scientists will have an opportunity to compare Itokawa and Ryugu samples to pieces of asteroid Bennu, which are on their way to Earth now aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Through an international agreement, NASA and JAXA are collaborating to analyze and compare samples from the three asteroids, two of which — Ryugu and Bennu — may have broken off the same parent asteroid billions of years ago.
2023: Cruising Back to Earth with Bennu Rocks
Captured on Oct. 20, 2020, during the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go sample collection event, this series of two images shows the SamCam imager’s field of view at the moment before and after the NASA spacecraft touched down on asteroid Bennu’s surface. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Setting out to collect at least 2 ounces, or 60 grams, of dust and rocks from Bennu, OSIRIS-REx is on its way home with an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of material, which is just over a cupful. OSIRIS-REx collected the sample from Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020. After the sample reaches Earth on Sept. 24, generations of scientists will get to probe dust from Bennu in their labs to address dozens of questions about the nature of asteroids, the early solar system, and the origins of life. While at Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detected organic carbon and signs that the material Bennu is made of had interacted with liquid water in the past. When the samples reach Earth, scientists will be able to see the complete chemical makeup of Bennu and piece together the history of water and organic matter on the asteroid.
Future Missions
2029: Martian Moons Get the Spotlight
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this picture of the larger of Mars’ two moons, Phobos on March 23, 2008. This image was taken from a distance of about 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers). It is presented in color by combining data from the camera’s blue-green, red, and near-infrared channels. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
JAXA will launch its MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission in 2024 to study the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos up close for the first time in history. MMX also will collect surface samples from Phobos, the farthest sampling location yet. JAXA will deliver the samples to Earth in 2029. This mission, which includes a NASA instrument, technology-demonstration sampling system and NASA-supported participating scientists from U.S. institutions, will help address questions about the evolution of Mars and the formation of its two moons.
2033: The Red Planet Comes to Earth
One of the big goals of space exploration is to determine whether Mars could have supported microbial life, or still does. Orbiters and rovers at the Red Planet have found intriguing evidence that early Mars had liquid water and a protective atmosphere, conditions that could have supported life as we know it. A portable lab in the belly of NASA’s Curiosity rover has even detected organic molecules in Martian soil that may – or may not – be related to life. To try to settle the question of Martian habitability, scientists have dreamt for decades of bringing Martian material to Earth to analyze it with cutting-edge technologies that are too big and too complex to send to space.
Their dreams could soon come true, as NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) are designing a multi-mission campaign to retrieve samples that NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is currently collecting from an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater. Called Mars Sample Return, the campaign is one of the most coordinated endeavors in spaceflight, involving multiple spacecraft, launches, and government agencies. The first spacecraft in a series needed to pick up Perseverance’s samples and bring them to Earth is scheduled to launch in 2027.
This week, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx science team is meeting as a whole for the last time before the sample of asteroid Bennu arrives on Earth. This occasion marks the last chance for the group to convene to make sure team members, lab facilities, and sample-analysis techniques are working as expected and ready for the delivery of Bennu’s rocks this September.
In the post below, Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, reflects on the big science questions that inspired this daring mission.
Jason Dworkin is an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the project scientist for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. He is standing in NASA Goddard’s Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, where he and other scientists study meteorites, Apollo Moon samples, plus comet and asteroid samples. Dworkin’s lab will receive pieces of asteroid Bennu for study after the sample arrives on Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. In this picture, Dworkin is holding a fragment of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which struck Earth about 50,000 years ago, creating Meteor Crater in Arizona. Credit: Dennis Drenner.
There are only a few months left until NASA’s OSIRIS-REx delivers a sample of asteroid Bennu on Sept. 24, 2023. It’s feeling more and more real every day. I feel as though I have so much left to do, even though I’ve already spent 19 years preparing for this moment.
When the sample returns, 233 scientists globally, including me, will get to explore the asteroid in our labs. In doing so, we will address dozens of questions about asteroids, the early solar system, and the origins of life. You can see these questions reflected in the full name of the mission and spacecraft: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer. (I’ll get deeper into the name later.)
I am an astrobiologist at NASA Goddard. I’m also the project scientist for OSIRIS-REx, which means I help manage mission science. My specialization is in the chemistry related to the origins of life, and so I work a lot with space rocks. My team in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory studies meteorites, Apollo Moon samples, comet samples from NASA’s Stardust mission, and asteroid samples (we’ve analyzed pieces of Itokawa and Ryugu, asteroids sampled by our partner, JAXA, or the Japanese Aerospace Agency). JAXA is among the many institutions that will get pieces of Bennu.
When our Goddard lab receives the first pieces of Bennu in October 2023, we will analyze them like a forensics lab, including grinding them into dust and subjecting them to boiling water, acid, and more. All this to gain insight into the chemistry of the compounds in the rocks.
This graphic shows a global map of destinations for the asteroid Bennu sample, which will arrive on Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. Below the map is a list of the institutions that will be the first to receive samples for a diversity of scientific investigations. The map is centered on Houston, where the sample will be curated and stored for the wider scientific community of today and of the future. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.
Besides my own work and that of my global colleagues, one of the most exciting things for me about the OSIRIS-REx mission is that ¾ of the Bennu sample will be put aside for the global scientific community and for the future. This practice is a legacy from the Apollo missions – we’re still opening and analyzing new caches of Moon rocks brought here by astronauts about 50 years ago! Saving extraterrestrial samples for the future ensures that they can be analyzed by scientists not yet born, using techniques not yet invented, to address questions that were unanswerable when the samples were collected.
We don’t know what questions future scientists will have about asteroids, but here are some of the biggest ones driving the science of this generation:
Does the sample contain organic compounds that could have influenced the origins of life?
This question relates to the Origins, “O,” part of the OSIRIS-REx acronym as it applies to NASA’s search for the origins of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system and beyond. All Earth life has specific chemicals, such as amino acids and sugars. We know that asteroids contain the molecular precursors to these chemicals, and we suspect that asteroids may have delivered these precursors to Earth. With Bennu samples, we will analyze the properties of these precursor chemical compounds and try to map out if, and how, these chemicals could have evolved into life.
How does the Bennu sample compare with our interpretation of data collected at the asteroid?
This question is related to the Spectral Interpretation, “SI,” and Resource Identification, “RI,” parts of OSIRIS-REx. We will analyze the mineral and chemical makeup of the samples to see if it aligns with what we expected based on spectral, thermal, and physical data gathered by the spacecraft at the asteroid. Being able to test our interpretation of spacecraft data in this unprecedented way — by comparing data from space to pieces of the physical object — will help us improve future missions and interpretations of telescopic and spacecraft data.
What does the sample tell us about the history of the solar system?
This question relates to the rest of the Origins, “O,” and some of the Security, “S,” parts of OSIRIS-REx. Besides the origins of life, we are also interested in the origin of our solar system. Because we suspect that Bennu could be older than our solar system, we hope the sample will open a window into the earliest time of solar system formation. We are interested in learning more about the condensation of gas and dust that formed the Sun; the formation and destruction of Bennu’s parent asteroid (we think Bennu broke off a larger asteroid during a collision billions of years ago); the formation of Bennu and its migration to the inner solar system, where its orbit will continue inching closer to Earth’s over hundreds of years; and to the formation of the crater on Bennu’s surface where we collected our sample.
How has the sample changed since the spacecraft collected it?
The act of sample collection, the Regolith Explorer, “REx,” part of the mission name, was violent and may have influenced the chemistry of the pieces that are coming home, not to mention their three-year journey between Bennu and our laboratories. Thus, we will study the sample to understand what kinds of physical and chemical changes it experienced to ensure that we can draw accurate conclusions from our laboratory experiments.
