Friday, September 22, 2023

4163 - ASTEROID RETURN SAMPLE -

 

-    4163   -    ASTEROID  RETURN  SAMPLE  -    NASA spacecraft is delivering the biggest sample yet from an asteroid.  The “OSIRIS-REx” spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu on September 24, 2023, will fly by Earth and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu, closing out a seven-year quest.

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-   The sample capsule will parachute into the Utah desert as its mothership, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, zooms off for an encounter with another asteroid.   Scientists anticipate getting about a half pound (250 grams) of pebbles and dust, much more than the teaspoon or so brought back by Japan from two other asteroids. No other country has fetched pieces of asteroids, preserved time capsules from the dawn of our solar system that can help explain how Earth and life came to be.

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-   The landing will conclude a 4 billion-mile  journey highlighted by the rendezvous with the carbon-rich Bennu, a unique pogo stick-style touchdown and sample grab.

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-    Asteroid chaser “Osiris-Rex” blasted off on the $1 billion mission in 2016. It arrived at Bennu in 2018 and spent the next two years flying around the small spinning space rock and scouting out the best place to grab samples. Three years ago, the spacecraft swooped in and reached out with its 11-foot stick vacuum, momentarily touching the asteroid's surface and sucking up dust and pebbles.

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-   The device pressed down with such force and grabbed so much that rocks became wedged around the rim of the lid. As samples drifted off into space, they scrambled to get the remaining material into the capsule. The exact amount inside won't be known until the container is opened.

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-    Discovered in 1999, Bennu is believed to be a remnant of a much larger asteroid that collided with another space rock. It's barely one-third of a mile wide, roughly the height of the Empire State Building, and its black rugged surface is packed with boulders.

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-   Roundish in shape like a spinning top, Bennu orbits the sun every 14 months, while rotating every four hours. Scientists believe Bennu holds leftovers from the solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago. It may come dangerously close and strike Earth on September 24, 2182, exactly 159 years after the asteroid's first pieces arrive. -

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-   Osiris-Rex will release the sample capsule from 63,000 miles out, four hours before it's due to touch down at the Utah Test and Training Range on Sunday morning. The release command will come from spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin's control center in Colorado.

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-   Soon afterward, the mothership will steer away and take off to explore another asteroid. The capsule, nearly 3 feet wide and 1.6 feet tall, will hit the atmosphere at 27,650 mph for the final 13 minutes of descent remaining. The main parachute will slow the last mile, allowing for a mild 11 mph touchdown.

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-    A plane will carry the sealed container full of rubble to Houston, Johnson Space Center.  NASA is livestreaming this touchdown.  The new lab at Johnson will be limited to the Bennu rubble to avoid cross-contamination with other collections.

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-   Building 31 already holds the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts from 1969 through 1972, as well as comet dust and specks of solar wind collected during two previous missions and Mars meteorites found in Antarctica. The asteroid samples will be handled inside nitrogen-purging gloveboxes by staff in head-to-toe clean room suits.

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-    The Osiris-Rex touchdown will be followed by the launch of another asteroid hunter on October 5. Both the NASA spacecraft and its target, a metal asteroid, are named “Psyche”. Then a month later, NASA's “Lucy” spacecraft will encounter its first asteroid since soaring from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2021.

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-    Lucy will swoop past “Dinkinesh” in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter on November 1. It's a warmup for Lucy's unprecedented tour of the so-called Trojans, swarms of asteroids that shadow Jupiter around the sun. Neither Psyche nor Lucy will collect souvenirs, nor will Osiris-Rex on its next assignment, to explore the asteroid Apophis in 2029.

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-    This is NASA's third sample return from deep space, not counting the hundreds of pounds of moon rocks gathered by the Apollo astronauts. The agency's first robotic sample grab ended with a bang in 2004. The capsule bearing solar wind particles slammed into the Utah desert and shattered, compromising the samples.

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-    Two years later, a U.S. capsule with comet dust landed intact. Japan's first asteroid sample mission returned microscopic grains from asteroid “Itokawa” in 2010. It's second trip yielded about 5 grams from the asteroid “Ryugu” in 2020. The Soviet Union transported moon samples to Earth during the 1970s, and China returned lunar material in 2020.

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September 22,  2023       ASTEROID  RETURN  SAMPLE        4163

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--------------------- ---  Friday, September 22, 2023  ---------------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

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