NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to return samples of Asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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TechTranscript
00:00OSIRIS-REx is NASA's first asteroid sample-return mission.
00:05It launched in September 2016 on a journey to explore a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu.
00:12After arriving in 2018, OSIRIS-REx spent nearly two years orbiting Bennu, mapping and studying
00:17its rugged terrain before carrying out its primary science objective.
00:22On October 20, 2020, the spacecraft ventured to a small crater in the asteroid's northern
00:28hemisphere.
00:29It dodged jagged rocks and towering boulders and plunged its arm into the loose surface,
00:34excavating six tons of debris while collecting about 250 grams of material.
00:40OSIRIS-REx stowed its bounty and closed its sample-return capsule.
00:45It bid farewell to Bennu in May 2021, embarking on a 1.2 billion-mile cruise back to Earth.
00:51Now, two years and four months after leaving Bennu, OSIRIS-REx is closing in on the place
00:57where its journey began.
01:03On September 24, the spacecraft will approach to nearly 63,000 miles from Earth.
01:08It will power up and release its sample-return capsule at 4.42 a.m. mountain time.
01:14The capsule must be jettisoned within a narrow time frame and at just the right angle to
01:18hit its target, an area of roughly 250 square miles in Utah's West Desert.
01:25Once the capsule is away, OSIRIS-REx will fire its thrusters to avoid colliding with
01:30Earth.
01:31At 8.42 a.m., the capsule will streak into the atmosphere at a blistering 27,000 miles
01:38per hour.
01:39It will race across the western U.S. and begin to glow with heat, allowing infrared trackers
01:44on the ground to chart its progress.
01:47As it pushes deeper into the atmosphere, the capsule will rapidly decelerate, subjecting
01:51the Bennu samples to a punishing 32 Gs.
01:55About two minutes after entry, it will slow to Mach 1.4 and deploy its drogue parachute,
02:00stabilizing its descent.
02:02The capsule will enter special-use airspace at 8.46 a.m., almost 10 miles above the Department
02:08of Defense Utah Test and Training Range.
02:11Radar stations will lock on and track it to within 30 feet of its landing site.
02:16At 8.50 a.m., the capsule will extract and deploy its main parachute one mile above the
02:21ground.
02:22It will make its final descent at a leisurely 11 miles per hour, like a marathon runner
02:27savoring a victory lap, before touching down in the desert soil at 8.55.
02:35After ground teams retrieve the capsule, the Bennu samples will be taken to NASA's Johnson
02:40Space Center in Houston, Texas.
02:42The sample canister will be opened in the Astro Materials Acquisition and Curation Facility,
02:47and the samples will be curated, distributed, and studied for decades to come.
02:53Having delivered its cargo, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will depart Earth, but its journey
02:58will not quite be finished.
03:00In a daring encore, the renamed OSIRIS-APEX will enter an elliptical orbit of the Sun,
03:06repeatedly passing within the orbit of Venus and pushing the limits of its thermal design.
03:11Beginning in 2029, it will chase down and investigate Apophis, a 1,200-foot stony asteroid
03:18destined to make an exceptionally close flyby of Earth.
03:22After 13 years in deep space, at the start of a new decade, alone on a new world, the
03:29journey will continue.
03:41NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology