OSIRIS-REx Sample Reveal Day

Today on October 11th during World Space Week at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration ’s Johnson Space Center , the OSIRIS-REx mission scientists and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed what the asteroid sample materials that was inside the Sample Release Capsule (SRC) that returned to Earth at the Utah Test and Training Range on September 24, 2023 after a seven year round trip journey to 4.5 billion year-old asteroid 101955, also known as Bennu, and back. The samples are steps in helping humans learn how the universe was created and what happened with our planet.

Lockheed Martin was tasked to build the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security - Regolith Explorer) spacecraft and the Sample Release Capsule, modeled after the Stardust Mission capsule, to capture asteroid samples from Bennu. As the spacecraft approached the asteroid near the Nightingale landing site, the TAGSAM or Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism robotic arm collected the samples functioning like a high-powered vacuum on the surface of the asteroid. “The Precision in which they were able to maneuver the spacecraft around the asteroid is unprecedented,” said Lead Mission Investigator Dante Lauretta from the 美国亚利桑那大学 . As a result two Guinness Book of World Records were achieved and a public nod the flight dynamics team who controlled the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

A stubborn space rock kept the canister from fully closing all the way, but its presence allowed more cosmic dust samples surrounding of the SRC targeted collection chamber. Once the largest carbon-rich sample ever collected, the space rocks and cosmic dust inside the capsule, mission scientists examined the space rocks and cosmic dust. Contained in the clay materials analyzed through an electron microscope include water-bearing clay fibers, Fe2O3 iron oxide, sulfide mineral plates, and oxide plaquettes giving clues to the building blocks of the universe in its creation. More carbon than expected in the 4.5 billion year-old asteroid in the initial analysis and an indicator of a suitable presence of life sustained on planet Earth.

OSIRIS-REx, once it released the SRC into earth’s atmosphere, began a new journey towards asteroid Apophis and the mission converted to OSIRIS-APEx or?short for OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer . The goal is to study near-Earth asteroid Apophis for 18 months after the asteroid's close approach to Earth on April 13, 2029.

With remarks on the collaborative power of space partnership from Administrator Nelson, “NASA brings us together.” “You are in the Golden Age of space exploration.”