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After four years of traveling into space, it is finally time for the final exam for NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft. At 334 million kilometers from Earth, the probe will be in close contact with the asteroid Bennu, which is so interesting for research but also a bit threatening.
During its journey with and towards the asteroid, the probe practiced before graduation: a landing lasting a few seconds. It is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, and then the Tagsam mechanical robotic arm is expected to collect stone and dust samples.
– If we can bring with us several tens of grams of material, it would be of enormous scientific importance, says Stas Barabash, professor and director of the Uppsala Institute of Space Physics (IRF).
The US space agency Nasa expects Osiris-Rex to be able to transport at least 57 grams of material, perhaps up to two kilograms, which would be the largest amount of space gravel that the United States has transported to Earth since the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1960s. 1970.
The probe will then return to Earth and is expected to be out of delivery in almost exactly three years, on September 24, 2023.
The hope is that the samples, once they reach Earth, can help research gain new insights into how planets form and life arises.
Asteroids have remained debris from the time the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists believe that asteroids and comets that collided with Earth early could have brought with them organic compounds and water that allowed life to develop.
Anders Eriksson, a researcher at the IRF, points out that asteroids and comets much more than Earth, which have been modified by constant biological and geological processes, are not affected by the ravages of time and therefore are rewarding to analyze.
– This has to do with the early history of the solar system, how the Earth and all the other planets came into being. These are waste materials, says Eriksson.
Are they like antiques?
– Yes they are.
Eriksson also says that it is easier to do more advanced analysis if the samples are returned to Earth than if they are examined remotely, in space.
– This with remote sensing is not very simple. It’s a completely different thing to look at the samples yourself, on the ground, to be able to twist and turn everything.
Bennu is classified as a type B asteroid. This means that it contains a large amount of carbon in addition to the various minerals that make it up. The fact that it is precisely Bennu who receives a visit has, to some extent, also to do with the asteroid moving relatively close to Earth, says Anders Eriksson.
– It takes a relatively small amount of soup to reach something that is fairly close to the ground. You should be able to go home with things too.
That according to NASA landing Osiris-Rex on a 16 meter diameter surface on the asteroid, while it takes 18.5 minutes for signals to move between Earth and Bennu, is an advanced mathematical exercise.
At the same time, Eriksson points out, physical laws that govern the process are known, and exercises have already been performed.
– I think this will work out, he says.
But Bennu too threatening. There is a risk that the asteroid will collide with Earth at the end of the next century. Right now, NASA claims that the probability of that happening is 1 in 2700.
Eriksson says that these risks apply to various asteroids, but also that, as the measurements of their orbits get better and better over time, the risks generally shrink and eventually land at zero.
– But asteroids are a real problem. This is something you have to deal with in the long run.
