Moving! NASA robot manages to touch the asteroid Bennu and collect sample – 10/20/2020

10/21/2020 Sports, World

[ad_1]

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe just touched the surface of the asteroid Bennu with its robotic arm to collect an unprecedented soil sample. If successful, the mission will reach Earth in 2023, bringing particles for study.

Everything went according to plan by the space agency, but the team still needs to analyze the data to confirm that the sample is viable, with at least 60 grams, up to 2 kilos. This should be measured before Saturday. Tomorrow, NASA will publish the images captured by the probe’s cameras on its website.

The event, called Touch-and-Go, or simply TAG, was the highlight of the mission. The approach was broadcast live by NASA (see here).

This type of harvesting requires a challenging and unprecedented maneuver. It is the first time the agency has removed a fragment of a moving asteroid. OSIRIS-REx looks like a small truck, and it performed the maneuver in an area called Nightingale, inside a crater the size of a sports field, with tall edges like buildings.

The entire procedure took approximately four and a half hours. First, the probe fired its engines out of orbit around Bennu, got close enough to reach out and touch it. Its solar panels were folded in a Y shape, over the boat, for protection.

A pressurized nitrogen bottle was fired at the asteroid to lift material from the surface which, if all went well, was collected with a “head” on the tip of the 3.5-meter-long robotic arm.

This head, which acts as a kind of air filter, was the only part of the probe that touched Bennu. It also contains small sticky discs, like stickers, to collect extra dust.

At about 330 million kilometers from Earth, there is a delay in communication with the spacecraft: it takes about 18.5 minutes to arrive or send a message to the NASA team. Therefore, the commands were given hours before, and the collection was carried out autonomously. It only lasted 16 seconds.

The engines were then turned back on to bring the probe back to a safe distance.

If the collection was successful, OSIRIS-REx will begin its long journey back to Earth in the next few months, arriving here in 2023. If not, a new attempt will be made in January, at another point, called Osprey.

Bennu, “the asteroid at the end of the world”

Bennu is an active asteroid that can eventually hit our planet. Measuring 525 meters in diameter, it is a kind of “rubble pile”: rocks grouped together and held together by the force of gravity.

It was chosen for the mission due to the similarities to other potentially dangerous asteroids and comets, called “Near Earth Objects” (NEO) or Near Earth Objects. It is also attractive for human exploration, rich in organic molecules and water, which could even be mined.

By studying the sample, we will be able to learn more not only about Bennu, but about the formation of planets and the emergence of life. The history of the Solar System contained in a billion-year-old stone.

The OSIRIS-REx probe was launched in September 2016 and entered the orbit of Bennu in December 2018. Since then, it has recorded various data and images of the asteroid.