From the Sputnik 1 to Osiris
A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind
“That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind”- Neil Armstrong. The words which echoed the entire world when a human being first set his foot on the moon. A prestigious and inspirational moment for the whole of humanity. Here’s an account of yet another leap which is perhaps one of the most important events in the history of space exploration. The NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex Mission — the first ever mission to collect the sample of an interstellar object!
OSIRIS-Rex is an acronym for “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolioth Explorer”. The goal of the mission was to collect a sample weighing 59.5g from the asteroid Bennu (1999 RQ36) which was racing towards earth. The explorer was launched on September 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral. OSIRIS orbited Earth and tilted to match the orbit of Bennu with gravity assist from Earth. On August 2018, Osiris took first images of the Bennu.
Mean while on its journey, it took several high resolution images of Earth and its companion, the moon. From December 2018, OSIRIS started to look for a collection site. It revolved the asteroid for about an year and thereafter, the team selected a site called “Nightingale” located at the northern carter . It was selected in such way that samples would provide insight on the asteroid. The team took 3 years to come close to a feat which was impossible at that time. It all came down to the moment of realising the astonishing feat.
October 20 2020, the day which will be marked in golden letters in space exploration history. The Osiris was assigned to do ‘TAG’ manoeuvre (‘Touch-And-Go’). The Osiris unfurled its robotic arm and touched the asteroid leaving dust to space. History was made! After two days , the team confirmed that the spacecraft now has more than enough samples (60g). Might seem too silly a thing for us considering the weight, but for a space scientist, it is worthier than gold! As a part of closing this stage , on October 28 the mission team instructed the Osiris to close the sample return capsule. Now Osiris will be orbiting Bennu until march 2021 to get proper alignment with Earth for it’s return journey.
The ‘TAG' can be seen from link below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGn0L2ijSFi/?igshid=2wkags7wc8nn
It is expected that on September 24 2023 it will approach Earth but won’t land! It will release the capsule containing the sample to earth for a parachute landing at Utah test and training range in Utah. Later Osiris will be orbiting the sun, it might get another mission but that will only be decided after the current mission is deemed successful. This mission is a definitely a milestone for humanity, for which we have obtained a key! A resource to examine the interstellar space for the very first time.
Another astonishing fact which makes this feat epic is that Bennu is more hollow than the other asteroids. It became soft on its way to Earth and Voyager 1 and 2, the great grand fathers of satellites have recorded a higher density of electrons at the heliosphere (edge of our solar system) which is unusual as space is considered to be vacuum. Even the ‘Scream of Hell’ Helix Nebula holds many interesting objects. We haven’t even discovered 1% of this universe yet our perception is changing trillion times on a phenomenon. Funny how we consider ourselves the most evolved race.
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