OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer) separated from Atlas 5 about an hour after launch. “Not a single anomaly was worked during the countdown”.
Advertisement
“It’s satisfying to see the culmination of years of effort from this outstanding team”, said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. “It is working absolutely as we designed it”.
NASA plans to share the contents with labs across the globe, which hope to study the carbon-rich asteroid rock for years.
The OSIRIS-REx mission will be the first USA mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth and the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era.
Bennu’s indeed cataloged as a hazardous object, as its orbit may take it into a direct collision course with Earth late in the 22nd century. Although the odds of this are still only about 1 in 2,500, NASA wants to get as much information as possible about Bennu well before then. In August 2018 OSIRIS-REx will use its small rocket thrusters to match its speed to the asteroid and it will spend the next year mapping a potential the asteroid surface for potential landing sites.
Though scientists have studied Bennu from ground and space telescopes, they don’t know exactly what to expect on its surface, so there will be some anxiety down on Earth as OSIRIS-REx works to collect its samples. “We were able to deliver OSIRIS-REx on time and under budget to the launch site, and will soon do something that no other NASA spacecraft has done – bring back a sample from an asteroid”. The amount of collected material can be anywhere between 60 grams and 2 kilograms of dust and rock. Once its on board “SamCam” has varied that the sample acquisition event has been successful, OSIRIS-REx will lift off, sample in tow, from Bennu. If all goes well, the priceless asteroid fragments will parachute down to the Utah desert in September 2023.
Advertisement
According to Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OsiRIS-REx, speaking at the post-launch press conference, “We hit all of our milestones within seconds. We really kicked that field goal right down the center”. The fourth New Frontiers mission will be selected by competition, with the final competition details scheduled for announcement in January 2017.
