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Sometimes, information technology's the big missions that are the about impressive — your moon landings and your ISS construction projects. But these days, the large infinite projects that define the push toward a future in space tend to be iterative. They work step by step toward the day when nosotros can get together them all into the next great super-project, most likely a crewed trip to Mars. Until so, it's not new versions of the space shuttle or interplanetary communications arrays that virtually embody the raw, almost foolhardy ambition of rocket science — information technology'south the incredibly lofty side-projects that more often than not go far less attention. One such mission, called OSIRIS-REx, is currently preparing for launch. If it's successful, it could end up being i of the almost impressive missions ever completed in space.

OSIRIS-Male monarch stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resources Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, and every bit the name (sort of) implies, it'south designed to accomplish an asteroid, take some rocks and dust every bit samples, then return to Globe so scientists can shoot those samples with lasers. This attempt is coming afterward the ESA has mixed results just setting downwardly on a comet, but this NASA project has a different strategy: avoid the difficulty of landing by sailing to within mere meters of the asteroid, matching its speed and trajectory, and reaching out with a semi-flexible vacuum arm to sucking up samples.

Once successful, pushing away and dorsum toward Earth should be a unproblematic thing by the standards of billion-dollar infinite projects. The "sample return pod" volition be relatively modest wonder of modern engineering, but at the cease of the day information technology'due south but a little spaceship for rocks. It's the dynamics of actually filling that sample render pod that pose the existent claiming.

The ii virtually difficult parts of the OSIRIS-Rex program are flying in near-perfect formation with an asteroid, and removing samples from that asteroid. Germination flying has to be extremely authentic and then it can reach out and take hold of the asteroid without having its arm ripped off. One contact is fabricated, it has to effigy out how to pick up rocks and dust in a vacuum with very trivial gravity keeping everything from flying away from the grabber. Below is a video of the sample collection arm at work in the lab, kicking up simulated asteroid stuff then rapidly pulling it into small internal compartments for storage.

But beyond proving that we tin can practise it, what's the point? Manifestly, scientists will learn a whole lot most the nature and history of this particular asteroid, and probable asteroids on average. But as with most show in mod astronomy, they have multiple different plans for how to employ it. Astroids have long been proposed every bit astronomical time capsules that can exist used to look far into the solar arrangement's by. Asteroids tend non to exist too desperately damaged past the erosion-like processes that erase evidence throughout the universe — things like, well, asteroid impacts. As a consequence, there's slap-up hope that the samples returned could offer insight into how the solar organization developed.

Philae

Philae didn't quite achieve this perfect, illustrated landing.

Further, this will be the first fourth dimension that scientists have gotten their easily on asteroid infinite grit — regolith. Right now, the reflectivity of that regolith is a ground for a whole lot of information nearly asteroids, and at present that reflectivity and other physical properties tin be tested directly. Such studies could profoundly increase the potential accuracy of such readings. Scientists once got the chance to test regolith from the Moon, and the studies they performed on information technology.

But this NASA team isn't thinking brusk-term; assuming OSIRIS-Male monarch does successfully grab the samples its sent to gather, they desire to create OSIRIS-REx II, a two-part sequel mission that would return samples from the surfaces of 2 moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. These sorts of sample return missions are the best scientists can peradventure hope for, until they can actually send astronauts to their various planets and asteroids of involvement.

OSIRIS-REx recently started its journey to the launch facility, scheduled to launch in early September.