[ad_1]
For almost two years, a NASA space probe has been orbiting the asteroid Bennu, or more precisely “101955 Bennu”. On Tuesday, OSIRIS-REx is supposed to complete its most difficult mission: landing on the celestial body and taking “samples of pristine carbon-rich asteroids.”
If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will deploy a three-meter long robotic arm, use a “Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM)” to collect debris from the asteroid’s surface in 10 seconds, and safely inside an onboard capsule. keep away.
By the way, space fans can follow the difficult maneuver of collecting samples live on NASA’s live broadcast tonight at 9:00 pm UTC (11:00 pm CEST (Paris)).
In the next spring, OSIRIS-REx will return to earth, because then the flight route is the cheapest. His arrival on earth is scheduled two years later, that is, 2023.
Why Bennu?
Bennu is considered to be “close to the ground”. Astronomers call it that because it approaches a distance of about 7.5 million kilometers from Earth’s orbit and is classified as potentially dangerous. It could hit the earth between 2175 and 2199 with a probability of 1 in 2700. It was discovered in 1999.
Bennu moves through space at about 101,000 kilometers per hour, and its diameter is only 500 meters. However, a collision with the ground could have fatal consequences.
Additionally, scientists hope to gain insight into the origins of our solar system, and examining Bennu’s samples could help them answer fundamental questions about planet formation and life.
OSIRIS-REx, which by the way stands for “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer Asteroid Sample Return Mission,” has been on the move for more than four years. It started on September 8, 2016 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the two years that the probe orbits the asteroid, it has not only measured it, but has also found a suitable landing site.
