NASA Craft Lands on Asteroid 200 Million Miles Away
Article by Liz George October 28, 2020 (americanmilitarynews.com)
• On October 27th, a NASA probe craft landed on the asteroid ‘Bennu’, located beyond Mars 200 million miles from Earth. A video of the event (see below) shows an arm of the craft making contact with the asteroid to suck up a sample of the extraterrestrial rock to bring back to Earth – a planned part of the ‘Osiris-Rex’ mission.
• Bennu was rockier than researchers anticipated, adding complications to the already precarious landing. Large boulders and rock fields made it difficult to land and the safest spot was still fairly rugged. Still, the Osiris-Rex probe (pictured above) successfully completed its 4-hour descent. “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off,” the NASA mission’s principal investigator Dante Lauretta said. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”
• With the camera focused on the spacecraft’s extended sample-collecting arm, viewers could see the arm make contact with the asteroids surface, sending a flurry of dust and particles into the space surrounding it. (see videos below) The asteroid’s surface is a type of sandy dust known as ‘regolith’. During the landing, the arm of the spacecraft shot nitrogen gas at the asteroid, stirring up the rubble in the surrounding space before collecting the regolith sample.
• When Osiris-Rex landed, it crushed the rock beneath it. Lauretta said this could make the collection of a good sample more likely, as the sampling instrument is more likely to collect swirling, crushed rock. “These rocks might be very weak compared to what we’re used to on Earth,” Lauretta said. Meteorites that do land on Earth’s surface must be durable enough to make it through the Earth’s atmosphere. Bennu’s rock may very well be different from the extraterrestrial rock samples NASA has already collected.
• The probe needs at least 2.1 ounces of the regolith before it returns to Earth. If NASA/Lockheed Martin determines that it did not collect enough regolith from Bennu, the spacecraft will give it another try on a backup site from a different part of the asteroid early next year. The rock collected from Bennu could assist scientists in designing a plan to redirect it if its future path includes a potential impact with Earth.
A NASA spacecraft landed on an asteroid flying through a stretch of space 200 million miles from Earth last Tuesday.
In a video of the maneuver, the spacecraft is seen making six seconds of contact with the asteroid, called
Bennu, in order to suck up a sample of the extraterrestrial rock. NASA released footage on Wednesday that showcased the precarious operation.
Dubbed Osiris-Rex, the mission sought to return the sample of the asteroid back to earth, Business Insider reported. Bennu was rockier than researchers initially thought, however, adding complications to the already precarious landing. Large boulders and rock fields made it difficult to land and the safest spot was still fairly rugged.
Despite the uneven surface on Bennu, the Osiris-Rex probe successfully completed its 4-hour descent.
“Transcendental. I can’t believe we actually pulled this off,” the mission’s principal investigator Dante Lauretta said during NASA’s live broadcast expedition. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”
With the camera focused on the spacecraft’s extended sample-collecting arm, viewers could see the arm make contact with the asteroids surface, sending a flurry of dust and particles into the space surrounding it.
The asteroid’s surface rubble is a type of sandy dust known as regolith. During the landing, the arm of the spacecraft shot nitrogen gas at the asteroid, stirring up the rubble in the surrounding space before hopefully collecting a sample of the regolith.
59 second video of OSIRIS-REx touching the Bennu asteroid (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)
2:19 minute ‘OSIRIS-REx’ orbiting a few hundred meters from Bennu asteroid (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)
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