By Richard Tew
NASA/JSC Correspondent for The Post Newspaper
On July 24, Johnson Space Center hosted media for an event designed to show the process of examining samples from distant space rocks like asteroids.
These samples can reveal secrets to the early origins of our solar system and indeed, our universe.
In 2020, NASA sent a probe to asteroid Bennu, which measures some 866 feet across and is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old. Bennu is a near Earth asteroid, passing about every six years.
During the media day, representatives from local, national and global news outlets were given tours to educate about the process of taking a rare sample like the one from the “OSIRIS-REx” mission to Bennu.
JSC is already conducting mock processing rehearsals to train specialists for when the sample lands in Utah on Sept 24. Once it has been collected from the landing site, within ten days, it will arrive at JSC for thorough analysis to learn more about their age and composition.
OSIRIS-REx Lead Sample Curator Nicole Lunning is in charge of the sample processing in the clean room, a room designed to reduce or eliminate any sample contamination from the air and environment.
“Glove boxes” are used which allow specialists to handle samples using thick rubber gloves attached to the box, with thick glass to see the samples and work area.
Both of the two boxes are filled with nitrogen to help keep the samples from breaking down from their original state. Lunning says the glove boxes were constructed over two years ago out of specialized materials.
Once processed, which includes cutting some of the samples, scanning them with electron microscopes and determining composition, small amounts of the samples will be made available for other researchers to study them.
Cutline: Engineers at JSC demonstrate parts designed to facilitate the study of a sample of asteroid Bennu, part of the OSIRIS-REx mission due to be at JSC in the coming months.
