Current Events > NASA: OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdwyqctp908

It's coming back into the atmosphere now

Ooh, expensive test results.

Anything in particular they are hoping to learn, or was this more a proof of concept for the spacecraft?

Sounds like a metal gear

Alteres posted...

Ooh, expensive test results.

Anything in particular they are hoping to learn, or was this more a proof of concept for the spacecraft?

https://www.space.com/osiris-rex-asteroid-delivery-earth-webcast

A day or so after touchdown, the Bennu sample will make its way to NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, where it will be curated and stored. JSC personnel will oversee the material's distribution to scientists around the world, who will study it for a variety of purposes.

For example, they'll look for clues about the solar system's early days, which may be locked away inside the ancient, primitive asteroid. And scientists think that carbon-rich space rocks like Bennu delivered life's building blocks to Earth billions of years ago, so some sample studies will focus on the asteroid's trove of carbon-containing organic molecules.

they are going to spend millions of dollars to test if it's a rock

I believe this was the first time something like this had been attempted.

If so, they likely picked the best to test the mission profile, instead of picking one of any particular interest.

Those sound like generic answers that could be tested from any meteoric remnants that make planetfall every year, and fluff responses.

Interesting stuff, fwiw. Other places celebrate landing on the moon (Russia's latest try blew up on or before landing) and we're landing on asteroids and bringing shit back.

We'll see what the moon landing conspiracy theorists do with this one.

A great scientific achievement, indeed. Why worry about getting into the next twitter fight over it?

When do we get our symbiotes?