After what was essentially space’s version of a very expensive and unusually tense claw machine game, NASA has finally confirmed that its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully retrieved rock and dust particles from the ancient asteroid known as Bennu. It took four months of gentle prodding, precise engineering, and heroic levels of patient waiting, but planetary scientists can now sleep slightly better knowing they are in possession of actual asteroid material and not, say, a very costly empty container.
The OSIRIS-REx mission, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer because apparently NASA never met an acronym it didn’t adore, was launched back in 2016 to collect samples from what is effectively a spinning cosmic time capsule. Its long-awaited return in September 2023 involved releasing a capsule that parachuted safely to the Utah desert carrying what scientists hoped was celestial loot. However, opening the container became a game of “space Jenga” which apparently required months of effort and tools more commonly associated with dental hygienists.
A group at NASA’s Johnson Space Center can now officially confirm that mission success was sealed with the joyous discovery of black dust and rock, mysterious materials that have not seen sunlight in over four billion years and are now being poked and prodded by Earthlings in lab coats. The analysis aims to reveal clues about the early solar system, the ingredients that may have seeded life on Earth, and perhaps finally answer the question of whether asteroids are more cake or cookie crumb in texture.
“We have pristine material from the solar system’s formation, untouched since the dawn of time,” said lead scientist Dante Lauretta, who has been with the project since before many current smartphones were designed and possibly has not had a decent night’s sleep since.
NASA hopes the samples will shed light on the origins of water and organic molecules on Earth and perhaps calm the nerves of everyone mildly concerned about Bennu being on a low-key collision course with our planet in the late 2100s. No pressure.
Science marches forward, sometimes one carefully unscrewed bolt at a time.