Episode 2340
OSIRIS-REx
Fri, 2023-Sep-29 01:20 UTC
Length - 4:08
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.
With 1,931,435 views on Thursday, 28 September 2023 our article of the day is OSIRIS-REx.
OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) as currently defined, is both the name of a NASA
spacecraft to investigate asteroids and the name of the first of its two missions. The first mission was to collect and return to Earth samples from Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid The second mission, named Apophis Explorer, or Osiris-APEX, is to study another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, but without returning a sample. This mission is scheduled for completion in April 2029, shortly after the Apophis asteroid makes a near-Earth flyby. The spacecraft completed its first mission on September 24, 2023, by ejecting its sample return capsule during a near-Earth flyby. The capsule parachuted safely to the ground in a US government training range near Salt Lake City, Utah and was retrieved by an awaiting team. It was transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for scientific study.
Analysis of the Bennu samples should enable scientists to better understand the formation and evolution of the Solar System, the initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds which led to the origin of life on Earth. OSIRIS-REx was launched on 8 September 2016, then flew past Earth on 22 September 2017, and rendezvoused with Bennu on 3 December 2018. It spent the next two years analyzing the surface to find a suitable site from which to extract a sample. On 20 October 2020, about 200 million miles (320 million kilometers) from Earth, OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu and successfully collected a sample. OSIRIS-REx departed Bennu on 10 May 2021 and returned its sample to Earth on 24 September 2023, subsequently starting its second mission to study 99942 Apophis.
The near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the first objective of the spacecraft, was chosen for close study because it is believed to be a "time capsule" from the birth of the Solar System. Bennu has a very dark surface and is classified as a B-type asteroid, a sub-type of the carbonaceous C-type asteroids. Such asteroids are considered primitive, having undergone little geological change from their time of formation. In particular, Bennu was selected because of the availability of pristine carbonaceous material, a key element in organic molecules necessary for life as well as representative of matter from before the formation of Earth. Organic molecules have previously been found in meteorite and comet samples, indicating that some ingredients necessary for life can be naturally synthesized in outer space. The cost of the spacecraft's first "Osiris-REx mission" is approximately US$800 million, not including the Atlas V launch vehicle, which is about US$183.5 million. The cost of the spacecraft's second "OSIRIS-APEX mission" is an additional US$200 million. The Osiris-REx program is the third planetary science program selected in the New Frontiers program, after Juno and New Horizons. The principal investigator is Dante Lauretta from the University of Arizona. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was the first United States spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid; the earlier, similar Japanese probe Hayabusa returned samples from 25143 Itokawa in 2010, and Hayabusa2 returned from 162173 Ryugu in December 2020.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:20 UTC on Friday, 29 September 2023.
For the full current version of the article, see OSIRIS-REx on Wikipedia.
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