OSIRIS-REx: NASA’s spacecraft to unveil origin of life?

What is the origin of life ?. The monumental question that became a debate between scientist and  philosophers from decades. Now in 2020 ,NASA’s Spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is on the way to find the answer.

NASA’s Origin,Spectral Interpretation, Resource Indentification and Security-Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-REx was launched in September of 2016 with a mission to collect samples of particles from asteroids , Specifically NASA is focusing on B-type Asteroids. B-type Asteroids
are the primitive one meaning they were formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago when our earth was formed and hasn’t changed much since then. This make B-type Asteroids on focus because they could contain Carbon based Organic molecules similar to those that led life on earth.

After Spotting a B-type Asteroid called 1999 RQ36 also known as Bennu ( an Egyptian bird deity) . Its diameter is about 500 meters i.e approximately 3 times bigger than statue of unity.
Since December 2018 , OSIRIS-REx has been surveying the surface of bennu , Mapping its surface and tracking the spin by orbiting around it. In 2019 it observed clusters of particles or dust coming up from the surface of asteroid. It also found that Bennu is densely covered in boulders which astronomers expect to be smoother. This discovery complicates OSIRIS-REx main mission of landing and collecting sample. Through all the surveys OSIRIS-REx indentified four possible sites where space craft could land. From all these four sites nightingale is found to be more promising than others.

NASA planned two rehearsals before actual landing to make sure everything would go smoothly. First rehearsal in April 2020 went off without any problem. Second rehearsal was pushed back to August 2020 due to corona virus pandemic. Second rehearsal went upto three steps of the sampling sequence but couldn’t collect the sample, this held because of connectivity issues as it takes 16 minutes for radio signal to reach that far. Hence scientists concluded that mission must be done autonomously by the space craft itself. The on board navigation system on Second rehearsal gave much detailed information about Bennu that convinced scientist to go further on mission . By collecting the data required for the mission now the next step is to go all the way up to collect the sample from Bennu.The first attempt after two rehearsals is scheduled on 20th October 2020.

If all goes well , OSIRIS-REx will send the sample back to earth arriving in September 2023. This sample would give scientist to look at very first piece of our solar system. This might give our answer on the question that what is origin of life? , Only if we found organic compound that led life on earth. To get our answers we need to wait till 2023.