What NASA just did with asteroid samples will blow your mind!

I literally broke into tears. This mission proves that NASA does big things, things that inspire us, things that unite us. It wasn't Mission Impossible, it was the impossible that became possible. These were the profound emotions from OSIRIS-REx Mission Principal Investigator Dante Loretta and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as they witnessed the safe return of the OSIRIS-REx sample capsule to Earth after its seven-year journey to the asteroid Bennu. More importantly, this is NASA's first asteroid sampling mission, paving the way for a journey to fully understand the formation of the solar system as well as our Earth. But this is only the beginning. Scientists will then conduct many experiments on samples taken from Bennu. And thanks to that, a series of surprising discoveries will gradually be revealed. To prepare for this, NASA's team began taking initial steps immediately after the capsule landed. What NASA just did with those asteroid samples will blow your mind. So stay tuned and find out everything in today's episode of Great SpaceX. At 10.52am September 24th, a sample return capsule was released to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which then successfully landed in the Utah desert. Meanwhile, its spacecraft continued toward its new target of asteroid Apophis, which will also fly close to Earth in 2029. According to the OSIRIS-REx mission, the capsule is responsible for collecting rocks and dust, called the sample, on the asteroid Bennu and then transporting them to Earth. This is considered NASA's first project to bring home a piece of asteroid for in-depth laboratory research. OSIRIS-REx took seven years to be done. It was launched on September 8th of 2016 and arrived at asteroid Bennu on December 3rd of 2018. It began orbiting the carbon-rich rock on December 31st of 2018. A dramatic but brief encounter on October 20th of 2020 saw Bennu pick up a sample from the surface before beginning the long journey home on May 10th of 2021 and landing on Earth in 2023. This mission plays a vital role in helping scientists learn more about how the early solar system, including Earth, formed. It could also help us better understand asteroids that could potentially impact Earth in the future. Here's the reason why they selected a very ancient asteroid, Bennu. It's relatively rich in carbon-based materials considered to be the origin of life. And that is what scientists are most interested in. Those were formed from the earliest time of the solar system and more importantly, those substances remain relatively pristine to date. Scientists believe that carbonaceous asteroids like Bennu previously crashed into Earth during the planet's formation, delivering organic substances, particularly water, from which life truly began. Additionally, Bennu is close to Earth with a current distance of 83,387,509 kilometers and has a similar orbit to that of Earth. So, it has the potential to hit Earth again. And although the estimated risk is low, NASA still wants to prevent it earlier. It can be then said that, to give the most accurate results, one of the important scientific goals of the mission is to keep the sample in a pristine state that is protected from the risk of contamination all the time, especially during the process of delivering it from the landing site to the lab. In order to do that, as well as making the vehicle reliable, after landing the capsule, NASA teams conducted a series of specialized actions to collect the sample from the landing site safely and made sure that no material that was out there in the Utah range could interact with the substance inside. This was the process. First, two teams consisting of recovery and research are transported to the landing site. Afterward, both conducted assessments to make sure that the capsule was not damaged in any way. Fortunately, the team confirmed that the capsule was not breached during landing. The recovery team also checked to ensure that it was cool enough to touch, given that previously it had reached temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry, and miraculously, the capsule's battery didn't rupture and leak any toxic fumes. Once the capsule was determined to be safe, it was transported by helicopter and taken to a temporary clean room near the landing site. There, the curatorial team conducted initial processing. The first thing they did was take a gas sample off the sample container. This type of gas had been captured in collecting samples, but over time, due to heat impact or thermal cycling, it may have off-gassed something. So scientists on site were curious to see what it consisted of. But aside from that, the team used a stream of nitrogen, known as purge, to prevent any of Earth's atmosphere from entering the sample container and contaminating it. Nitrogen is considered an inert gas, meaning it does not react with any substance inside and, in this case, it will also act as a protective layer for the sample. When tasks in the temporary clean room were finished, the sample capsule was transported on a C-17 aircraft to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on September 25th. Scientists were expected to take samples out of the capsule for the first time on the 26th to begin real work. At the time of this report, the sample should now be in Houston, where operations will be carried out to collect the sample carefully and prepare it for distribution and storage. The OSIRIS-REx mission is considered to be a success because it completed the collection and return of a pristine sample, paving the way for important future discoveries. Details about the sample are planned to be revealed on October 11th through a NASA broadcast from Johnson Space Center. According to Dante Loretta, OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the information that may be shared in October is only a quick initial analysis because the science team will not have time to fully evaluate the sample. However, this may indicate the presence of minerals and chemical elements. Over the next two years, scientists will go into more detail by analyzing rocks and solids in a dedicated clean room inside the Johnson Space Center. Among 250 grams of the sample, just half of a percent will be spent on the research job at the Johnson Space Center, and 70% will be kept by NASA intact in storage so that future generations with better technology can continue their research. 25% after that will be sent to more than 200 scientists from 35 different facilities globally. The remaining 4% and 0.5% will go to the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, respectively. But that's not all! NASA also plans to add one more piece of information to their research collected from the previous Ryugu asteroid sample returned from Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission, held by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or the JAXA. Like Bennu, Ryugu is also a near-Earth asteroid, which scientists at JAXA believe also contributed to the origin of life on Earth by bringing water to our planet through collisions between them. This combination of two national-scale projects promises to provide a broader perspective on the beginnings of the solar system as well as the number of near-Earth asteroids that may be on an eventual collision course with our planet. By gaining a fuller grasp of their composition and orbits, we can predict which asteroids may make the closest approach to Earth and when, and at the same time develop methods to deflect these asteroids based on their composition. Last but not least, it can be said that the success of missions to near-Earth asteroids like OSIRIS-REx is the perfect stepping stone for targets in more distant locations. For example, Psyche's mission in October of 2023 is to travel to a unique, metal-rich asteroid called Psyche that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will be responsible for launching the Psyche spacecraft carrying modern equipment for this exciting mission. Compared to OSIRIS-REx, the upcoming project is estimated to be more challenging. First of all, the distance from Earth to Psyche is 570,844,346 kilometers, six times more than Bennu. Secondly, the asteroid belt has a lot of small planets, which makes rocket travel more difficult. For that reason, NASA initially made careful preparations, especially looking for a reliable vehicle capable of traveling long distances, and through a $117 million contract, they found SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. With a powerful thrust of up to 3,400,000 pounds, this rocket can lift a weight of 16.8 tons, suitable to carry the Psyche spacecraft and some of the equipment inside. Additionally, its cost per launch is just $97 million in general, which is peanuts when compared to the price of the SLS. However, low cost does not mean low quality, as Falcon Heavy has proven clearly, with its total of seven launches, all of which were successful, meaning that its success rate is at 100%. All in all, SpaceX's Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle is the perfect choice for the Psyche mission. Although more challenging, we have the right to believe that Falcon Heavy will do excellently in its upcoming mission, contributing to the project's success, and it'll make the journey to space colonization in the 21st century even more interesting. And that's it for today, folks. If you want to support our channel and get access to exclusive content, please consider becoming a patron by clicking the link in the description below. We appreciate your generosity and your passion for space exploration. As always, this is Kevin from GreatSpaceX, and until next time, keep looking up!