DUGWAY, United States -- A seven-year space voyage comes to its climactic end Sunday when a NASA capsule lands in the desert in the US state of Utah, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.
Even that small amount, NASA says, should"help us better understand the types of asteroids that could threaten Earth" and cast light"on the earliest history of our solar system," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. Its rapid descent, monitored by army sensors, will be slowed by two successive parachutes. Should they fail to deploy correctly, a"hard landing" would follow.
"The capsule will plummet through space for four hours, enter the atmosphere over California and land about 13 minutes later in Utah," it said. On Monday the sample is to be flown by plane to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, the box will be opened in another"clean room."Most of the sample will be conserved for study by future generations. Roughly one-fourth will be immediately used in experiments, and a small amount will be sent to mission partners Japan and Canada.
They"can give us clues about how the solar system formed and evolved," said Osiris-Rex program executive Melissa Morris.By striking Earth's surface,"we do believe asteroids and comets delivered organic material, potentially water, that helped life flourish here on Earth," Simon said.
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