OSIRIS REx, NASA’s spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral two years back which reached its target, Asteroid Bennu, one among the 500 thousand asteroids in the space, on Monday. Scientists are aiming to collect some sample dust from the asteroid which is believed to have provided life-preserving materials to Earth for a scientific study. The study in question involves finding the probability of life in Sun.

OSIRIX REx will is likely to make five close range aping runs before landing into orbit around the asteroid towards the end of the year. An engineer at the Lockheed Martin’s Flight Control center yelled in excitement as OSIRIS REx touched the asteroid while he was watching telemetry stream in from 76 million miles away which confirmed the critical rocket landing.

The detailed insights into NASA’s mission:

Scientists are of the belief that there are primitive bodies leftovers from the birth of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. The OSIRIS REx closes in on a denizen of the Kuiper belt a billion miles past ‘Pluto’.

OSIRIS REX is a convoluted acronym which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretations, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer. This spacecraft is equipped with three cameras, two spectrometers, a laser altimeter and an X-Ray imaging system which is developed by college students.

What is the process of the scientific study and what are the results scientists are looking at?

OSIRIS REx also boasts of having a ‘touch-and-go sample acquisition mechanism’ or TAGSAM at the last end of the 10 foot long Robotic arm. After a detailed mapping and rehearsal until 2020, OSIRIS REx will stretch a robotic arm to High five asteroid and push TAGSAM which resembles an inverted pie dish which will contact the surface of Bennu. In the five minutes stint, compressed nitrogen gas will shoot into the collector which will stir up and lift some of the rocked soil. The sample is likely to be measured around 4.4 pounds which will be trapped in filters for returning to the Earth.

While its way back home, OSIRIS REx will extend the robot arm to place the sample inside an aerodynamic sample capsule and OSIRIS will wait for the Earth and Bennu to return to their basic positions in the orbits to start the trip home. According to Dante Lauretta, the Principle Investigator of the whole campaign, “We can’t leave Bennu before March of 2021, just because we have got to wait for the orbital mechanics to line up”. She further added, “So that’s about two-and-a-half years of operations at the asteroid. We only touch that asteroid for that brief, five seconds sampling contact. We are going to do everything we can to make sure e get the sample on the first attempt”.

The scientists are also planning to preserve some samples which will be subjected to two years of detailed analysis.

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Elevator that can take to Space – Japan and its technological advances has been a talking point around the World. At the mention of Japan, one thing pops up first in Indian minds, Mitsubishi which is soaked by nostalgia, the heavy automotive industry that is headquartered in Japan sold innumerable numbers of motor vehicles in Indian market.

Japanese automobile technology is sworn by in India and now it is venturing into a new something that will leave your jaw-dropped.

In the time and age when everyone is aiming for space, why Japan will not show their promise? well, rockets are way too commonplace, now they are all set to make an Elevator that can take to Space. No lying!

Okay, now close your mouth and don’t let the fly in.

Wear your glasses, sit up straight and read very carefully what is written below.

Japan has vowed to make you feel like the characters from Star Wars through their Space elevator which pretty much seems like a science fiction plotline to us, nothing less.

This technological wonder is named as Space elevator which is going to be tasted by Japan’s Shizouka University.

This move will come as a potential to getting the satellites off the earth. Sounds cool, doesn’t it?

The event will be conducted on 11th September where the team will launch a scale model of the motorized box on earth’s orbit. The elevator will contain two cubic satellites which will be 4 inches on each side. There will be a 33 foot steel cable connecting the satellites. Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tanegashima Space Centre will launch the machine on H-IIB rocket to the International Space Station.

Lately, the astronauts have extended a cable in the space to monitor the happenings there but engaging a container to move along the cable will happen for the first time ever in history.

However, this is not the first attempt the scientists made for creating a space elevator and there have been attempts made in the past too. Scientists are really looking forward to the success of this step which will bring a new era in space technology. The main draw of this will be that the costs of sending materials or people in the space will be less but the main challenge that the scientists are facing is to prepare the right kind of cable for the same.

According to Keith Henson, a Technologist and Engineer, ” No current material exists with sufficiently high tensile strength and sufficiently low density out of which we could construct the cable”. They also have another concern in minds that is to make the elevator avoid satellites and other space junks, bear with the feisty winds, and fight the gravity from the Sun, Moon and Earth.

Elevator that can take to Space – Japan really thinks that this test will be a revolutionary step in the space technological forefront and a very plausible option too. We too are hoping for this grand success.

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