The US house probe OSIRIS-REx on Monday left the orbit of the asteroid Bennu, from which it collected mud samples final yr, to start its lengthy journey again to Earth.
The probe nonetheless has an enormous distance to cowl earlier than it lands within the Utah desert on September 24, 2023.
OSIRIS-REx is “now transferring away over 600 miles an hour from Bennu, on its method dwelling,” Dante Lauretta, head of the mission, stated on NASA’s video broadcast of the occasion.
The spacecraft’s thrusters had been engaged with out incident for seven minutes to place the probe on the proper trajectory dwelling, a journey of 1.4 billion miles (2.3 billion kiometres).
It is carrying greater than 60 grams of mud and fragments from the asteroid, the most important pattern collected by NASA for the reason that Moon rocks introduced again by the Apollo missions.
To obtain this aim, the US house company launched a high-risk operation in October 2020: the probe got here into contact with the asteroid for just a few seconds, and a blast of compressed nitrogen was emitted to lift the mud pattern which was then captured.
The shock for NASA was the probe’s arm sank a number of centimetres into the floor of the asteroid, exhibiting the scientists that “the surfaces of these rubble pile asteroids are very loosely consolidated,” stated Lauretta.
The entire mission virtually got here to nought when NASA realised just a few days later that the valve of the gathering compartment was failing to shut, letting fragments escape into house.
But the valuable cargo was lastly secured after being transferred to a capsule mounted within the spacecraft’s heart.
In two and a half years, that capsule might be launched just a few hours earlier than entry into the Earth’s environment, and might be slowed down by a parachute system for its touchdown.
The samples will then be transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, however 75 % might be saved intact to be studied by future generations, who may have superior applied sciences that haven’t but been created, the company stated.
The evaluation ought to assist scientists higher perceive the formation of the photo voltaic system and the event of Earth as a liveable planet.
