The recovery team has practiced all kinds of landing scenarios.
OSIRIS-REx made the first-ever visit to the near-Earth asteroid
But sometimes things don't go to plan. So the recovery team has been practicing for numerous other scenarios, to preserve as much of the sample as possible in the event of a landing anomaly. The OSIRIS-REx team wants to get as much scientific return as possible from the $1 billion mission no matter what happens on Sunday.
"We practice beforehand to optimize accuracy and minimize the chances of mistakes during the capsule's Earth arrival," Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx program manager at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin, added in an Aug. 17 The recovery practice has been ongoing for years, and culminated with a series of simulations in Utah in the zone where the spacecraft should touch down. In April, a practice capsule was placed in the field in different positions to allow the team to practice retrieving it. Then the team ramped up the effort by using a truck in July, and then a helicopter in September, to simulate dropping off the capsule at higher and higher speeds.
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