Scenario of Asteroids Rayugu from Hayabusa 2. Credit: JXA, University of Tokyo and collaborators
A few weeks after samples of the eclipse planet Bennu were successfully touched by NASA’s OSIRIIRIS-Rex spacecraft, researchers at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have been approached by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Aerospace Exploration Agency).JXA) Haibusa 2 spacecraft.
On Sunday, December 6, Haibusa 2 delivered a sample of material from the asteroid Rayugu to Earth. Thank you for the agreement between JXA and NASA, Nasta will receive a portion of the Haibusa 2 sample, while Bennu will return to Earth in exchange for a percentage of Regolith. OSIRIS-REx In 2023.
Scientist and collection curator with NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division (ARES), Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, Haibusa 2 sample U.S. Will oversee part care and safe care. He and his colleagues will go to work inside a brand new lab in Houston designed specifically to characterize, document, store and prepare samples for study by AUS and other researchers.
The Hybusa 2 sample will become the seventh curated extraterrestrial collection curated by humans from outside our planet, and Bennu will serve as a precursor to the important crucial work ahead in the new ARS lab when samples arrive.
New labs are currently being built at the Johnson Space Center to study and study samples returned to the planet Bennu from Ryugu and NASA’s Osiris-RX mission. Credit: RS&H
“When I was at a college lodge in Japan in the 1990s, my college lodge consultant told me how our samples were the only specimens of the polo mission, plus meteors that landed on Earth or were found floating in the dustbin of global dust,” said Nakamura-Messenger. “Now, I’m going to be one of the first to touch this new astrology. It is a great honor to see the sample before anyone else can do it.
Joining Nakamura-Messenger in this work are AERS fellow researchers Christopher Schneid, Ann Nguyen and Mike Zolenski.
“It’s exciting that this will be the first asteroid specimen of its home type.” “To be ready, we are finishing the new laboratory, as well as to install and configure special devices to work with the samples that are expected to be composed of small particles and very difficult to control.”
Bringing Ryugu home
The Haibusa 2 mission was launched in December 2014 on a six-year journey to study the planet Rayugu on Earth and collect samples to bring back to Earth for analysis.
The mission is similar in nature to NASA’s IR Series-Rex flight asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-Rex successfully collected a large sample from Bennu in November and will return in 2023. The purpose of both missions is to identify what is known as a carbonaceous asteroid, which is considered to be the rocky building blocks of the early solar system and can hold the keys. To understand how it happened and life emerged later.
NASA and JX agreed to share samples from each mission to give scientists as much material as possible to study and compare closely. The plan also means that the OSIRIS-Rex mission team will definitely benefit from early discoveries or lessons learned from the Hybusa 2 mission.
The Haibusa 2 spacecraft arrived on the planet in June 2018. There, the spacecraft deployed rovers and landers on the surface of Raigun, and collected a sample close to the surface of the asteroid.
About two years later, Hayabusa 2 is bringing asteroid samples to Earth. On December 6, the spacecraft will go through Earth to launch a landing capsule with an eclipse sample. The capsule entered our planet’s atmosphere and into the South Australian Australian outback with a fiery parachute for a soft landing inside the Woomera Range complex. The JAXA recovery team recovered the capsule, then took it to a nearby portable lab for inspection and safe for travel to Japan. In Japan, researchers will conduct a preliminary study of the sample and prepare a portion of it for allocation to its science team and NASA.
Nakamura-Messenger and Snead will bring the NASA model back to Johnson for a trip to Japan in December 2021.
New labs for small work
In Houston, two scientists and their team will go to work inside the new lab. They hope the JXA sample will make a big discovery despite its small size: probably just 10 milligrams of asteroid content. In contrast, the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft Bennu collected at least two ounces (60 g) from the surface material of the asteroid.
Haibusa 2 researchers expect to see a mix of organic and water-bearing compounds and minerals that will give them a lot to investigate and understand. Snead is leading efforts to work with individual bits of the sample, many of which will be microscopic and many times smaller than human hair.
Snow says, “Right now, we’re experimenting with how to work with tiny particles and mineral grains, huge waves reaching the sealed metal and glass box boxes.” The samples are designed to avoid reacting with water and air. The nx is filled with nitrogen, but it also means that it is too dry and static electricity becomes an issue. “
Snead’s other important preparation work involves the development of a joystick-powered device that uses miniature mechanical tools to select and operate small asteroid particles.
Sharing with others
In analyzing, describing and listing the sample, the ARES team will be one of the first to study material from Ryugu. But their work will enable other qualified scientists to do their own research.
R.E.R.S. Scientists and researchers will be urged to conduct their own studies of the Raigu model for decades to come. When they do, Nakamura-Messenger and Snade will work with researchers to skillfully select, prepare and deliver sample parts for their study. Once the scientists are finished with the material, they will return it to Johnson, where ARS staff will maintain a detailed record of where it was discovered before resubmitting the material to more researchers.
For Nakamura-Messenger, Snead and scientists around the world, the wait to study the Ryugu firsthand sample is almost over. Soon, they will have the opportunity to study its composition and chemistry individually, once impossible. Let the search begin!
