A sample of the only asteroid ever to be brought to Earth untouched by our own planetary forces was recently described on an NBC Connecticut news program by Paul Slaboch, PhD, director of the University of Hartford’s aerospace engineering program and chair of CETA’s mechanical, aerospace, and acoustical engineering department.
Spacecraft OSIRIS-REx collected a sample of an asteroid and brought it back on September 24, 2023. Slaboch, whose award-winning research is funded primarily by NASA, has the kind of aerospace expertise that NBC Connecticut knew viewers would appreciate as he explains the significance of the mission. He calls it a “pristine look back at the early days of our solar system,” and describes how forthcoming studies of the sample will help determine if asteroids contained the building blocks of life.
This news segment from NBC Connecticut is available to view online.