The Sample Return Capsule (SRC), jettisoned from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft just a few hours before, arrived with a perfect touchdown at 8:52 am Mountain Time this morning at the Utah Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range.
The SRC is approximately 81 cm in diameter and 50 cm tall, and originally sat upon the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx was launched on Sept. 8, 2016, and its mission was to travel to the asteroid Bennu, orbiting on the other side of the Solar System; Bennu was 140 million miles from Earth at the time of launch. The spacecraft reached the asteroid in 2018, and successfully captured a sample of the soil and rocks of the asteroid. The asteroid measures about 861 feet across, so being able to touchdown from such a great distance is a tremendous feat of engineering.
The asteroid is over 4.5 billion years old, and scientists all over the world are hoping that the samples will reveal secrets about the origins of our Solar System, and possibly about the origin of life on Earth. Although the mission called for a minimum 60 gram sample, the SRC was able to secure a 250 gram sample, which will be studied and pored over for decades to come.
