The mission Osiris REx was launched by NASA in 2016 with the goal of hitting the asteroid Bennu, landing there, collecting soil samples and then returning them to Earth.
The collection operation took place as planned in 2020 and the probe began its return to Earth. Landing is scheduled for September 24 in the Utah desert after entering Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 27,650 miles per hour (44,500 km/h), slowed by a heat shield and then a parachute.
Preparations for the return of the probe
NASA is using the final weeks before Osiris-REx’s return to practice capsule recovery, using a replica of the spacecraft to train teams to receive and recover capsules. Sample on a specific drop zone.
At the end of this seven-year mission, the American space agency hopes for an eventual recovery 250 grams Earth of the 4.5 billion year old asteroid Bennu to learn more about the formation of planets, but also about the organic components that may have contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.
Once the probe is on land, the sample is carefully collected and placed in a clean room to avoid any terrestrial contamination. The container will then be disassembled and sent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will be examined and sent to various research laboratories for analysis.
Better understand the evolution of the universe and the origin of life
It is a novel sample that can thus be analyzed and will complete the findings following the return in 2020 of the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2, which had already collected and returned a sample of the asteroid Ryugu.
In particular, his analysis confirmed the presence of organic components and amino acids, some of which are used as building blocks for living RNA. The sample returned by Osiris-REx will allow these results to be compared and corroborate the data.
The arrival of the Osiris-REx probe can be followed via live streaming on the NASA website, the NASA application and NASA TV from 4 p.m. (French time) on September 24th.