OSIRIS-Rex

Shashank Raj Gupta

Question: OSIRIS-Rex is a-
a) Spacecraft
b) Asteroid
c) Comet
d) Neutron star
Answer: (a)
Related Facts

  • On 20 October 2020; NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx touched down on the rugged surface of the Bennu asteroid.
  • The mission has gone there with the objective to grabb a sample of rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system to bring home.
  • The spacecraft launched in 2016 from Kennedy Space Center for the journey to Bennu.
  • It has been in orbit around the asteroid for nearly two years preparing for the Touch and Go manoeuvre.
  • The mission was planned to perform “Touch-And-Go” manoeuvre, which was managed by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado USA.
  • Most importantly it was a first for the United States, only Japan has previously secured asteroid samples.
  • The robotic arm’s collection device, shaped like an oversized shower head, is designed to release pressurised gas to kick up debris.
  • Bennu, which is more than 4.5 billion years old, was selected as a target because scientists believe it is a small fragment of what was once a much larger space rock that broke off during a collision between two asteroids early on in the history of the solar system.
  • Scientific reason in studying Asteroids:-
  • Asteroids are like time capsules floating in space that can provide a fossil record of the birth of our solar system.
  • Asteroids can provide valuable information about how planets, like our own, came to be.
  • Asteroid Bennu:
  • The NASA team has determined two key discoveries about Bennu-
  • First, that between 5 and 10 percent of Bennu’s mass is water.
  • Second, its surface is littered with carbon-rich molecules.
  • Atomic-level analysis of samples from Bennu could help scientists better understand what role asteroids played in bringing water to the Earth and seeding it with the prebiotic material that provided the building blocks for life.
  • Studying that material could also help scientists discover whether life exists elsewhere in the solar system, as well.

By – Rajesh Tripathi

Links:-
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-nasas-osiris-rex-mission-asteroid-bennu-6870837/
https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/asteroid-bennu-samples-spill-back-space-jammed-nasa-spacecraft-osiris-rex-probe-1734812-2020-10-25