Interesting factoid - Had the OSIRIS-REx team voted “No go” for today's landing attempt, then the spacecraft would have been diverted and would have sailed past Earth. The next landing attempt would have taken place in 2025. #OSIRISREX#Bennu
2/n
Here are some interesting schematics of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and the capsule carrying rubble and regolith from asteroid Bennu.
The capsule is protected by a heat shield that regulates the temperature inside, keeping the sample below 167 degrees Fahrenheit, reminiscent of Bennu’s surface.
Half an hour to go before the OSIRIS-REx capsule, now 5,000 km away, hits Earth's atmosphere. Note that the capsule is spin-stabilized and carries no thrusters. It's trajectory is all based on science, physics and math!
There are no location sensors on the capsule either, so it will be tracked using radar and optical and infra-red cameras.
An optical camera aboard a NASA H135 helicopter will provide a live feed of the descent and landing soon.
There She lies, on the sands of Utah, head tall, protecting her precious cargo from the rigors of space and those of Earth, waiting to meet her creators again.
All inspected, packed up and picked up for delivery by helicopter to the temporary clean room located at the nearby Dugway Proving Grounds, which specializes in biological and chemical weapons testing.
Thanks for the lift!
After traveling 6.2 billion km, I must admit I feel a bit tired. A warm shower and a hot cup of tea will be nice. With crumpets and jam please.
The OSIRIS-REx sample capsule is now safely placed inside the temporary clean room at the Dugway Proving Grounds. In the clean room, it will be disassembled and packaged in parts for transport on Monday to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, its permanent home.
Nice and clean in here, but feels like a hospital surrounded by surgeons in masks.
Still waiting for that cup of tea. How about a hug?
@AkaSci Wow! Just showed this thread for my 5 year old and explained the mission and so on. She said she would like to look at a “spaceship” (as she called it) up close one day. I said of course she can. If she puts her effort into it she might work with cool stuff like that one day!
@happyborg@AkaSci if they do find DNA (which they won't), it will almost certainly be a terrestrial contamination. DNA is much too delicate to survive at Bennu for so long, though its constituents like nucleotides may be detectable. Because of the exquisite sensitivity of modern instruments, maintaining sterility and cleanliness is essential otherwise any potential findings can be rendered invalid.
@absamma I doubt it would survive near the surface so agree this isn't getting to yield DNA but I wouldn't rule it out as a distribution mechanism created by post a biological intelligence to seed ecosystems and ultimately its kind across a galaxy. The expectation being that in some locations evolution will kick in and eventually evolve to primitive a new post bio intelligence.
I'm not sure it's feasible but think a super intelligence would attempt to seed its kind as an evolutionary imperative
Next up, the disassembly team will open the capsule and remove several components including the unopened sample canister. The canister will be connected to a continuous flow of nitrogen, to protect the samples from oxygen, moisture and other contaminants. Prep. time = 5 hours.
The parts will be transported by aircraft to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday morning.
A NASA media briefing has been scheduled for 5 p.m. EDT today.
@AkaSci Flooding compartment with nitrogen is wrong assumption. What if the life form inside thrives on nitrogen? Perhaps an inert gas would be better suited to ensure the contents have no reaction with gases.
@jfmezei@AkaSci molecular nitrogen gas (N2) is inert and therefore appropriate here. It's also because nitrogen gas at 99% purity is easier to manufacture at cost effective scales than noble gases. Life detection is not a concern nor a goal because from OSIRIS Rex's analysis at Bennu, the asteroid is by all accounts sterile. Even so, nitrogen would still be appropriate.
@absamma@AkaSci N2 may be easy to make and pretty harmless, but when dealing with something that is unknown from outside our planet, one should be very pedantic. Nitrogen does react with stuff. ( I know 99.99999% chances that the content in capsule is just totally inert sand, but we won't know this until after).
This Bennu fellow has been around instead of being loyal and faithfull to a single planet like our Moon. Who knows what he caught during his promiscuous travels 😉
Here is another pic of the "alien-autopsy" scene from the temporary clean room at the "secret" Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Complete with breathing tubes (not really, that is probably carrying Nitrogen gas to prevent oxidation and contamination of the rock samples).
CT-soaked minds will notice that the tentacles have moved!
The aliens are coming, the aliens are coming!
👽👽👽
Aliens aside, here is an interesting shot of the location where the OSIRIS-REx capsule was dropped off near the building with the temporary clean room at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah.
The framing, the lighting and the lines in the shot fool the eye into seeing a sloping wall behind the two men, while the area is just a flat parking lot.
Here is a wider shot of the photograph in the previous post.
The Dugway Proving Grounds, established in 1942, is the Army's premier science and test facility in Utah, for testing and evaluating chemical and biological weapons.
Spread across 800,000 acres, it has numerous state-of-the-art laboratories, unique test chambers and extensive field test grids.
After a 3+ billion km journey, the regolith sample from asteroid Bennu has arrived at its new home - NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The sample canister and other parts from the capsule were transported by an AF C-17 aircraft from Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah to Houston and then by truck to the Space Materials lab at NASA Johnson.
Images 1 - 3 credit: NASA
Image 4 credit: Joshua V. Nelson, NASA ISS Flight Controller #OSIRISREX#Bennu
23/n
Now begins a 2 year effort to curate and analyze the material from asteroid Bennu in the quest to understand the origins of life on earth.
Pictured below are scientists practicing with a mock-up glovebox.
Michelle Thompson, OSIRIS-REx contact pad analysis deputy lead
Christopher Snead and Kevin Righter, OSIRIS-REx deputy sample curators
Wayland Connelly, astromaterials curation engr
Lindsay Keller OSIRIS-REx contact pad analysis lead
Nicole Lunning, lead sample curator.
Pic of another practice session with the mock-up glovebox -
Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx scientist from Goddard
Christopher Snead, deputy sample curator
Curtis Calva, astromaterials processor
Rachel Funk, lab lead processor
Julia Plummer, astromaterials processor
Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator, U of AZ
Nicole Lunning, lead sample curator
Melissa Rodriguez, contractor lead for astromaterials
Kimberly Allums, contract project manager.
Here is a video from NASA of the OSIRIS-REx capsule's trip from Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah to the Ellington airfield in Houston onboard a C-17 and then onward to the Space Materials lab at NASA Johnson.
At the OSIRIS-Rex capsule post-landing press briefing on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023 - seated left to right -
Dante Lauretta - University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator
Mike Moreau - NASA OSIRIS-REx Deputy Project Manager
Tim Priser - Lockheed Martin Deep Space Exploration Chief Engineer
Eileen Stansbery - NASA Chief Scientist
Lori Glaze - NASA Planetary Science Division Director (not shown, seated to the right of Dante Lauretta)
The circular structure in the 2nd image is the OSIRIS-REx TAGSAM (Touch and Go sample Acquisition Mechanism), which was used to collect the rock and regolith samples. The entire TAGSAM head was inserted and locked inside the capsule.
NASA today released this short video taken when the OSIRIS-REx’s sample return capsule separated from the main spacecraft and started its descent toward Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.
The image sequence was taken by TAGCAMS’s NavCam 1 camera. The Sun is visible at the top of the frame, and a thin “crescent Earth” can be seen at the left edge of the image.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is currently traveling in a heliocentric orbit, slightly inside earth's orbit and lagging behind. Currently, it is 5.1 million km from Earth.
It will perform a close encounter with asteroid 99942 Apophis on April 13, 2029, the day on which Apophis will get awfully close to Earth, just 31,600 km above its surface.
@AkaSci I love all these details, thanks so much! I can't wait to see a photo of that shovelful of asteroid gravel! Do you know when they are popping it open?
@shoozejim
This is a software generated visualization created by NASA.
Check out the website at the link below, where you can display the location and views from dozens of active spacecraft and various solar system bodies. https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_osiris_rex_src
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