NASA is making final preparations to take samples from the asteroid, where the spacecraft will return to Earth in September. On August 30, teams performed a dress rehearsal for the recovery of the capsule to return samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. During testing, the helicopter dropped a replica of the capsule from a height of more than 2,000 meters. The capsule parachuted into the Utah Test and Training Ground west of Salt Lake City; where personnel went through procedures to prepare the capsule for transport to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

“We are sending our teams to the field, where they will be, using the communication tools and equipment they will use on the day of recovery,” said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center during a post-rehearsal briefing.

The rehearsal was part of the final planning for the return of the actual OSIRIS-REx capsule, arriving early September 24. The capsule carries about 250 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu, which the spacecraft collected during the touch-and-go pickup in October 2020.

Fully titled Origin, Spectral Interpretation, Source Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer, the mission’s purpose is to return these samples to Earth for analysis by scientists who hope the material will provide new insights into the formation of the Sun. system.

“Boy, the science team is excited to get this,” said OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona. “We are returning to the dawn of the solar system.”

There are still several important steps before these samples reach the labs of Lauretta and other scientists. On September 10, the spacecraft is scheduled to perform a maneuver whose orbit will coincide with the test and training ground in the state of Utah. Another maneuver a week later will further refine its trajectory by targeting an elliptical area of ​​650 square kilometers within range. “We have a relatively small footprint, but we are very confident we will get there,” Burns said.

The final decision will be made just hours before OSIRIS-REx launches the capsule some 108,000 kilometers from Earth. “Four hours from launch to re-entry are too long,” said Sandra Freund, Lockheed Martin OSIRIS-REx program manager. The capsule will return at more than 43,000 kilometers per hour, slowing during re-entry and opening of the main and main parachutes, descending to less than 20 kilometers per hour for landing 13 minutes after entry.

The OSIRIS-REx lead spacecraft will perform a “retreat” maneuver approximately 20 minutes after the capsule is released to prevent reentry. It will fly past Earth at a distance of 800 kilometers and set off on a long mission to visit the asteroid Apophis shortly after making a close flyby in 2029.

If something goes wrong during reentry maneuvers that could cause the capsule to miss the landing ellipse or compromise the safety of the capsule or people on the ground, NASA will not release the capsule, Burns said. In that case, OSIRIS-REx will fly past Earth in an orbit that will bring it back for another trial two years later.

Mission teams prepare for other issues that may arise during entry and landing, including the capsule hitting the ground at high speeds. This is not unprecedented: NASA’s Genesis mission collected samples from the solar wind, but its parachutes failed to open during re-entry, causing the capsule to crash into Utah during re-entry in 2004.

“We learned a lot from Genesis,” Freund said. “We’re very confident we’ve transferred the lessons of Genesis to OSIRIS-REx.” However, he said, in order to preserve as much of the sample as possible, the team is training for different scenarios if the capsule doesn’t land safely.

But if all goes well, sample analysis will begin soon after the sample container is delivered to the clean room of the curatorial facility at JSC. Lauretta said that the initial analysis of the samples will be discussed at the press conference to be held on October 11, followed by a presentation at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December.

Loretta, who has been involved with OSIRIS-REx since the mission was proposed nearly two decades ago, said she would be part of the team that will collect the samples in Utah. “I wanted to be there personally to invite these pieces of Bennu to our home planet, to welcome them at the Johnson Space Center curatorial facility, and to prepare them for the adventures we take on.” Source