Nasa’s OSIRIS-Rex begins a 2-year journey home with asteroid dust samples.

In September 2016 the NASA spacecraft “OSIRIS” started from earth to an asteroid named

“Bennu”, which will come very close to earth in around 150 years. After taking some soil

samples OSIRIS is now on the two-year-long way back to earth where it will drop the

samples on earth in 2023.

For a few years, NASA has launched many rockets with spacecraft that were supposed to

reach asteroids and analyze them and OSIRIS is one of them. The rocket which launches

OSIRIS into the earth orbit started in September 2016. OSIRIS’s full name is “OSIRIS- REx”

which first is the name of an Egypt god (OSIRIS: god of the dead) and also the shortcut for

“Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer”, which kind of summarises the functions and tasks of the spacecraft. The two instruments which are the most important ones are firstly the spectral interpretation tool, which can analyze different light types and other radiation, and secondly, an apparatus which pushes a cylinder into the ground collects material from the dusty surface and stores it in a collection container. OSIRIS will bring this container, which includes 60 grams of material, back to earth.

Scientific hopes and dreams - analyzing the material and finding out amazing things

So it’s important to know that for scientific experts this material isn’t just dust and stone, it’s much more. Many experts from NASA are expecting hints to the structure, composition, and properties of Bennu. Maybe there are chemical elements or minerals we know from the earth, but maybe there are new elements we could add to our period system. The thing that makes Bennu really interesting is the fact that the asteroid will come, for astronomic relations, very close to the earth, which raises interest in the astronomic lobby.

Regardless of whether we are finding out amazing things or not, it’s definitely amazing to see that a mission with a length of 7 years work nearly perfectly until yet (little fail by collecting the material because some stones were blocking the closing mechanism of the container) because it shows how far technology progress in aerospace is. Already this part success kind of signs what will be possible in the next few years.

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