OSIRIS-REx Update: Lockheed Martin Found a Way to Collect Asteroid Samples

NASA's asteroid hunter OSIRIS-REx was launched to space last Sept. 8. The spacecraft will perform an extensive surface mapping of asteroid Bennu. But one of the most important parts of its mission is to collect asteroid samples and bring them back to Earth for scientific testing. How exactly will the spacecraft do that? Engineers at Lockheed Martin devised a way to extract samples in microgravity.

The Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will help scientists understand the nature of asteroids and it might potentially provide an answer about the formation of the Solar System. In order to do the gargantuan task, the spacecraft was fitted and designed with innovative technologies to allow it to scoop samples from an asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx is the first $800-million asteroid-hunting mission launched by the U.S. government. The spacecraft is carrying a hefty amount of scientific payload that will enable it to carry out its mission. "OSIRIS-REx contains five instruments to explore Bennu, each of which provides important information for the mission. This suite of instruments is used for remote sensing or scanning the surface of the asteroid," a NASA official said in an official OSIRIS-REx factsheet.

The instruments aboard the spacecraft include the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS), OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA), OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) and OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS).

But the scientific community is most interested in the new Lockheed Martin technology that will allow OSIRIS-REx to collect samples from an asteroid and bring pieces of remnants from space back to Earth. The company designed a canister to hold dirt, gravel and dust.

During the extraction, the instrument will touch the asteroid for no more than five seconds to extract about four pounds of asteroid dirt. It seems as simple as scooping a pile of dirt. However, this will be performed in an orbiting asteroid.

"The problem is that you have all of this loose material on a surface with very low gravity," Lockheed engineer Jim Harris said in a statement. "You can't think of it as gravel in a driveway. As soon as you touch it, the particles may scatter."

Instead of drilling, Lockheed Martin will be using a different technique to extract samples. A robotic arm will emerge from the spacecraft, once it touches the surface it will emit nitrogen gas that will scatter materials onto the canister that will then suck the samples from the asteroid's surface. Testing has proven that this technique works bests in microgravity instead of drilling holes

NASA believes that asteroid Bennu contains natural resources such as water, organics and metals. These materials will help scientists discover new findings from a primitive space rock to further understand how the universe was formed.

NASA is expecting to collect 4.4 pounds of materials from outer space. The samples will arrive back on Earth in 2023.