OSIRIS-REx: - TO RETREAT HOME REAL SOON
OSIRIS-RE x stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. It is NASA’s asteroid and sample return mission.
This mission basically set out to collect a sample of a minimum of sixty grams from 101955 Bennu which are asteroids around the Earth’s area which are also carbonaceous that is also commonly called C-type asteroids. 101955 Bennu specifically is a not proper C-type asteroid but a carbonaceous in the Apollo group, which was discovered long back in 1999 on September 11 by the project.
That was listed on the list guard risks table as it has the potential to be a hazardous object with a high cumulative rating. The mission is to collect a minimum of 60 g from it and will bring that to Earth for a very detailed and deep study. The duration set for this mission is approximately around seven years out of which 1570 days will be at the asteroid.
The scrapings when returned are expected to give the scientists and researchers a more detailed analysis of the Solar System and its formation and evolution, its been 4.8 billion years since the day it was formed but it is evolving itself day by day and to be more learnt and updated about it the sampling that will return is going to be very fruitful
So this could be legitimately said that this mission is going to be a full wakening one for the scientists as its also going to deal with the very infant stages of the planet’s formation and then gradually the formation of the entire organic compounds that led to the formation of this beautiful breathing life on the planet Earth.
OSIRIS-RE x s mission was started on September 8, 2016, at the launching site of Cape Canaveral, Florida contracted through United Launch Alliance(ULA), and the rocket used was Atlas V. It passed the Earth on September 22, 2017, and the assignation with the Bennu was on December 3, 2018, the next months flew by just to find a desirable site to collect the sample for the analysis purposes than on October 20, 2020, it finally get a contact with the Bennu and was successful in grabbing down the sample from it.
Some of the reports that come there state that a slight of the sample was eschewed when the flap responsible to close the sampler head was jammed open by larger rocks but the NASA scientists retrieved it by saying that when they were collecting it then only they collected way more than the desired 60 g
They were also able to retain back some 400 g which was more than enough for them to start with their studies on it. It is expected to retreat back to Earth on September 24, 2023, at the ‘Night angle’. And will thereby be set to start its new mission on 99942 Apophis as OSIRIS- APEX, marked as a later threat of the approximate year 2029.
The priority was given to Bennu as it was a historic treasure of space which is a very useful and deliberate way of communication with the future population and to help future scientists and researchers to study the past and its evolving nature in the future and it was one the things found in the universe since the time of the birth of Solar System.
It has a very calamitous surface and is classified as a B-type asteroid and subtype of C type it has a special of existing from a primitive age and has undergone very few geological changes. The return to Earth will be shorter and it will land through the parachute and then will be transported to Johnson Space Centre for further process.
