NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission brings asteroid samples back to Earth – The Verge

NASA finds building blocks for life in the Bennu asteroid sample

2025-01-29T15:46:10-05:00

Astromaterials processor Mari Montoya and OSIRIS-REx curation team members set the TAGSAM (Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) down in the canister glovebox after removing it from the canister base and flipping it over.

Scientists from NASA and other institutions who have been analyzing the Bennu asteroid sample that returned to Earth last September found molecules, including amino acids, which are essential ingredients of life as we know it. The sample also included "evidence of an ancient environment well-suited to kickstart the chemistry of life," according to a NASA press release today.

The findings, published in research papers today in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy, don't confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life, but instead confirm the "conditions necessary for the emergence of life were widespread across the early solar system." Th …

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NASA collected a sample from an asteroid for the first time — here’s why it matters

2023-09-24T14:26:56-04:00

Victoria Thiem, system safety engineer from Lockheed Martin, checks the temperature of the actual size OSIRIS-REx’s return capsule sample during the recovery rehearsal at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Canyon campus in Littleton, Colorado, on Tuesday, June 27th, 2023. | Photo by Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post

NASA completed its first-ever sample return mission from an asteroid today, with a science capsule containing material from an asteroid landing after having traveled on a 1.2 billion-mile journey from the asteroid Bennu. The capsule was released from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft as it passed by Earth this morning, entering the atmosphere at around 27,000mph.

The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, has collected as much as several hundred grams of asteroid material, which could help scientists understand the earliest stages of the Solar System.

"NASA invests in small body missions like OSIRIS-REx to investigate the rich population of astero …

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NASA’s asteroid-punching spacecraft begins its trek back home

2021-05-10T18:46:09-04:00

The Bennu asteroid, captured by NASA’s Osiris-REx spacecraft | NASA

The NASA spacecraft that snatched a sample of rocks from the distant Bennu asteroid last year fired up a suite of thrusters on Monday and committed to its two-year journey back home. The maneuver kicks the minivan-sized spacecraft, dubbed Osiris-REx, onto a winding cosmic path around the Sun and toward Earth's orbit. When it returns to Earth in 2023, it'll toss a capsule packed with asteroid samples through the atmosphere somewhere over Utah.

The spacecraft's Asteroid Departure Maneuver (ADM) was no sweat for the Osiris-REx team, but it marked a significant step towards the return of the first pristine cache of asteroid samples in NASA's hi …

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe successfully stores small sample of asteroid rocks in its belly

2020-10-29T18:06:00-04:00

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully stored a small cache of rocks that it grabbed from the surface of an asteroid named Bennu last week, sealing the pebbles inside the vehicle's belly. The asteroid particles will now remain inside the spacecraft over the next three years, as OSIRIS-REx makes its way back to Earth.

OSIRIS-REx grabbed the sample on October 20th of last week, more than four years after launching from Earth on its mission to touch an asteroid. Using a thin robotic arm, the vehicle lightly tapped the asteroid Bennu, stirring up rocks on the surface and pushing some of the pebbles up into the spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx was …

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx was so good at grabbing asteroid rocks that they’re overflowing

2020-10-23T19:32:52-04:00

The end of OSIRIS-REx’s sample collector, showing asteroid sample leaking out into space | Image: NASA

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft did its job a little too well on Tuesday, when it tried to scoop up a handful of rocks from an asteroid named Bennu more than 200 million miles from Earth. The vehicle actually grabbed too much material with its robotic arm, jamming the lid at the end of the arm open - and letting part of the asteroid sample escape out into space.

"We were almost a victim of our own success here," said Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission at the University of Arizona, in a press conference.

OSIRIS-REx's mission is to bring a sample of asteroid material back to Earth so that scientists can study …

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Stunning images show NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stirring up rocks on an asteroid

2020-10-21T19:07:27-04:00

NASA shared astonishing images of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touching an asteroid yesterday, revealing how the vehicle stirred up rocks and debris on the object's surface when it made contact. The goal of the tap was to collect a sample of material from the asteroid, but the engineers behind the spacecraft say they won't for sure if they collected anything until this weekend, when they spin the vehicle and measure how much material is inside.

"the sampling event went really well, as good as we could have imagined."

However, the OSIRIS-REx team feels confident that they got something. "Bottom line is from analysis of the images that we've gott …

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully taps an asteroid in attempt to grab a sample

2020-10-20T18:16:59-04:00

This afternoon, a NASA spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth successfully touched the surface of an asteroid, in an attempt to grab a handful of pebbles and dust from the space rock. Data from the spacecraft confirmed that the vehicle did indeed touch the asteroid today, but NASA won't know until tomorrow if it actually snagged a sample of material.

"Touchdown declared," a mission controller announced when the team received data confirming the maneuver. "Sampling in process." The news of the success was met with cheers and applause from engineers following along with the procedure.

The spacecraft that just tapped the asteroid i …

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Watch as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission attempts to grab a sample from an asteroid

2020-10-20T12:47:11-04:00

This afternoon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will grab a small sample of rocks from the surface of an asteroid named Bennu zooming through space more than 200 million miles from Earth. It's an ambitious task, but if it works, OSIRIS-REx may eventually return to Earth with the largest sample of material from another space body since NASA's Apollo missions to the Moon.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been circling Bennu for the last two years, mapping its surface and hunting for the right spot to snag these rocks. After an intense amount of planning from the mission team, the engineers have a target all picked out on Bennu and are ready to send …

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A NASA spacecraft is poised to snag the largest sample of rocks from an asteroid ever

2020-10-19T12:36:26-04:00

An artistic rendering of OSIRIS-REx about to collect a sample from an asteroid named Bennu. | Image: NASA

Tomorrow, a US spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth will sneak up to an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building and snag a handful of rocks from its surface. If all goes to plan, the spacecraft will store the precious cache of rocks inside its belly, and will eventually transport the materials to Earth, where they can be studied by scientists in a lab.

The spacecraft stealing these rocks is called OSIRIS-REx, part of the first-ever NASA mission tasked with returning samples of an asteroid back to Earth. Launched in September of 2016, OSIRIS-REx spent two years traveling to an asteroid named Bennu. Since it arrived in 201 …

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How engineers are operating deep-space probes, Martian rovers, and satellites from their homes

2020-04-20T12:06:53-04:00

Carrie Bridge at her home work station.

Last Tuesday, a team of engineers sat huddled around their computer screens, monitoring a spacecraft as it maneuvered around a rocky asteroid more than 140 million miles from Earth. They were conducting an important interplanetary dress rehearsal, running the spacecraft through many of the operations it will do in August when it attempts to snag a tiny sample of rocks from the asteroid's surface. This dress rehearsal has been in the works for years, and the team had expected to be gathered together for it in a mission center in Colorado.

Instead, most of them kept tabs on the event from home. "It was a skeleton crew that was supporting the …

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