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NASA mission successfully 'landed' on asteroid Bennu

2020-10-21T02:07:02.756Z


NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed for less than 16 seconds on the asteroid Bennu and fired pressurized nitrogen.


Why the asteroid Bennu?

These are the reasons for NASA 2:57

(CNN) -

After orbiting the asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully landed and extended its robotic arm to collect a sample from the asteroid's surface on Tuesday.

That sample will be returned to Earth in 2023.

To accomplish this historic first for NASA, a pickup-sized spacecraft had to briefly touch its arm at a landing site called Nightingale.

The site is the width of some parking spaces.

The arm was stretched out to collect a sample, which could be between 50 grams and 2 kilograms.

Then, the spaceship backed safely back.

Preliminary data show that today's sample collection event went as planned đź‘Ť More details to come once all the data from the event are downlinked to Earth.

Thanks, everybody, for following along as we journey #ToBennuAndBack!

Next stop: Earth 2023!

🌍 pic.twitter.com/fP7xdOEeOs

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- NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 20, 2020

Everything went perfectly according to the data returned by the spacecraft, according to Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator and a professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona.

He said it feels "transcendent" and the team is "exuberant" with current data.

On Tuesday night, the OSIRIS-REx team will review the data sent by the spacecraft.

"After more than a decade of planning, the team is delighted with the success of today's sampling attempt," Lauretta said in a statement.

“Although we have some work ahead of us to determine the outcome of the event, the successful contact, the TAGSAM gas firing and the withdrawal of Bennu are important achievements for the team.

I hope to analyze the data to determine the mass of sample collected.

The agency will be able to confirm whether a sample was successfully collected later, and images from the event will be available Wednesday on NASA's website.

"This was an incredible feat, and today we have advanced in both science and engineering and our prospects for future missions to study these mysterious ancient narrators of the solar system," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate of NASA in a statement.

.

"A piece of primordial rock that has witnessed the entire history of our solar system may now be ready to return home for generations of scientific discoveries, and we can't wait to see what comes next."

The site itself is located inside a crater the size of a tennis court and surrounded by rocks the size of a building.

Located more than 200 million miles from Earth, Bennu is a rock-filled asteroid shaped like a top and as tall as the Empire State Building.

It is a "rubble pile" asteroid, which is a group of rocks held together by gravity rather than a single object.

The mission, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, was launched in September 2016.

Since arriving at Bennu, the spacecraft and its cameras have been collecting and sending data and images to help the team learn more about the composition of the asteroid and map the best potential landing sites to collect samples.

The main event of the mission is the Touch-and-Go Sample Collection Event, or TAG, which occurred today.

Bennu has an orbit that brings it closer to Earth, which is why it is considered a near-Earth asteroid.

One of your future focuses could bring you dangerously close to Earth sometime in the next century;

has a one in 2,700 chance of impacting our planet.

The Bennu samples could help scientists understand not only more about asteroids that could impact Earth, but also about how planets formed and how life began.

"Today's TAG maneuver was historic," Lori Glaze, director of the Division of Planetary Sciences at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

"The fact that we have safely and successfully touched the surface of Bennu, in addition to all the other milestones this mission has already accomplished, is a testament to the living spirit of exploration that continues to uncover the secrets of the solar system."

This was the launch of OSIRIS-REx to save the Earth from asteroids

NASA's "anxiety" for contact with Bennu

Instead of the so-called "seven minutes of terror" of trying to land the Perseverance rover on Mars next year, the OSIRIS-REx team has experienced "4.5 hours of mild anxiety," according to Beth Buck, operations program manager for Mars. the mission at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado.

The event officially began at 1:57 pm ET.

During this time, the spacecraft descended from its orbit around the asteroid and got close enough to touch it.

The asteroid and the spacecraft are currently approximately 333 million km from Earth, causing a communication delay of approximately 18.5 minutes between the mission team and the spacecraft.

The NASA team has been sharing animations on the mission's Twitter account showing what is happening based on commands that have already been sent to OSIRIS-REx hours in advance for the sample collection sequence.

A live broadcast also began at 5 p.m. ET on NASA's website sharing animations and insights from the mission team as they explain the data they are receiving.

The spacecraft went through the entire sequence of approaching the asteroid and collecting the sample autonomously as live commands from Earth were not possible.

This is how you land on an asteroid

The event took about 4.5 hours in total and the spacecraft performed three maneuvers to collect the sample.

The spacecraft fired thrusters to leave its safe orbit around the asteroid, which is about 762 meters away from the surface, and traveled for a total of four hours before reaching just 124 meters away.

The spacecraft then adjusted to position and speed to continue descending.

OSIRIS-REx then slowed its descent to target a path to match the asteroid's rotation during contact.

Its solar panels were folded into a Y-wing configuration over the spacecraft to protect them.

At last, OSIRIS-REx landed for less than 16 seconds.

The spacecraft fired a bottle of pressurized nitrogen at the asteroid, using the gas as a way to lift material off Bennu's surface.

If the sample collection went according to plan, the spacecraft's collection head captured the churning material.

This head, located on the 3.3 meter long robotic sampling arm, is the only part of the spacecraft that Bennu touched.

The team likens it to an air filter on an older model car, perfect for collecting fine material.

TOUCHDOWN!

Sampling in progress đź’Ą # ToBennuAndBack pic.twitter.com/8dj2g8AUxK

- NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 20, 2020

Small discs, which can collect dust like sticky pads, are also on the head in case part of the sampling maneuver did not go as planned.

After the event

A camera on the spacecraft has captured images of the collection event.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was tasked with detecting hazards and delaying its own mission should an obstacle get in the way of sample collection.

Based on their simulations, the team estimated that there was less than a 6% chance that the spacecraft would abort the mission.

The images will be returned by the spacecraft on Wednesday, which will provide more details of the sample collection and how the spacecraft is doing.

"It's difficult to put into words how exciting it was to receive confirmation that the spacecraft successfully touched the surface and fired one of the gas cylinders," said Michael Moreau, deputy director of the OSIRIS-REx project at the Goddard Space Flight Center. from NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.

"Our first indication of whether we were successful in collecting a sample will come on October 21 when we download the throwback movie of the spacecraft," Moreau said.

"If TAG caused a significant alteration to the surface, we probably collected a lot of material."

The team estimates that they will have a massive measurement of the sample on Saturday.

By October 30, NASA will confirm whether the spacecraft collected enough sample or if it needs to make another sample collection attempt in January at another landing site called Osprey.

But if all goes smoothly, the spacecraft and its prized sample will begin the long journey back to Earth next year and land the sample on Earth in 2023.

AsteroidNASA

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-10-21

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