Fantastic Space Stories On May 10, 2024 the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission of NASA had collected material from the asteroid Bennu, which was close to Earth. This was our February 2022.
That effort was successful last year. On September 24, 2023, just before 9:00 p.m. MDT, a beautiful sight appeared in the sky above Utah: the art's example return case (SRC) securely tumbling to Earth underneath its wide, orange and white striped parachute. At the Utah Test and Training Range of the United States Air Force, the capsule, which had been released just hours earlier when the spacecraft was 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) from Earth, landed precisely on target.
The following day, the SRC flew by means of freight plane to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where a group held back to list and dismantle the canister and its connected testing component, called the Sticky Example Obtaining System (TAGSAM).
These were first positioned inside fixed "gloveboxes," keeping the examples from being presented to Earth's air. It was agonizingly slow: The TAGSAM and canister top were covered in such a lot of additional material that gathering and listing it before the actual canister could be gotten to required choice consideration. In a statement, deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead said that it was "the very best "problem" to have."
It's likewise a "issue" that scientists had expected, given the material seen spilling over from the TAGSAM head following the assortment move Oct. 20, 2020, when the TAGSAM sank about 20 inches (50 centimeters) into the space rock. By Oct. 11, 2023, NASA hadn't yet opened the canister. However, the agency made public the outcomes of a preliminary analysis of the excess material: Bennu has a lot of carbon and hydrated clays, which are compounds with a lot of water in them.
This suggests that organic molecules, which are the basic components of life, may also be present. Sulfides, a necessary component of amino acids, were also discovered by researchers. Scientists who are interested in the abundance and function of such materials in the early solar system as well as the evolution of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere will find these findings encouraging.
Space rocks give the ideal beginning stage to study, as the two of them contain unblemished material that dates to the planetary group's introduction to the world and are believed to be the primary vehicle for conveying numerous components,
including water, to the youthful Earth. NASA got 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) just from the hardware. This was more than the mission's goal of getting 2.12 ounces (60 grams) from Bennu before the actual sample was accessed.
Additionally, the spacecraft is now on its way to the asteroid Apophis, which is close to Earth and will be studied up close beginning in April 2029. As a result, the craft now goes by the name: OSIRIS-APEX, abbreviated as A Pophis explorer.
-- Bhautik Thummar
