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French Media AgencyOctober 23, 2020 6:11:12 PM
NASA on Wednesday released its first images of a sampling operation carried out on the asteroid Bennu, which appeared to show a successful recovery of rock and dust, or as one official put it, “the kind of disaster we expected.”
The US agency’s Osiris-Rex robotic spacecraft briefly landed on the rock-strewn surface of Bennu Tuesday in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth after a four-year journey.
Asteroid Bennu captured from OSIRIS REx using its PolyCam camera from 770 kilometers away. Image courtesy: NASA
Osiris-Rex is scheduled to return home in September 2023, hopefully with the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era, which will help unravel the origins of our solar system.
Meanwhile, images taken at the probe’s focus provide a play-by-play game of the mission’s most action-packed sequence, even as the spacecraft’s sampling arm breaks a large but seemingly crumbly rock on contact.
That, said mission chief Dante Lauretta, was a good thing, as it likely produced the kind of fragments that the arm collects most easily.
Next, an explosion of nitrogen created a cloud of dust and rocks; again, this is good news for harvesting.
“The bottom line is that, from the analysis of the images we’ve obtained so far, the sampling event went really well, as well as we could have imagined,” said Lauretta.
“The particles are flying all over the place. We really made a mess on the surface of this asteroid, but it’s a good mess, it’s the kind of mess we were hoping for,” he said.
The chances of the probe collecting usable material have increased “vastly more based on analysis of these images,” added Lauretta.
A final verdict will be issued in the coming days: first based on sample images taken inside Osiris-Rex, then when the mass of the sample is measured on Saturday, with a final report expected on Monday. The goal is at least 60 grams (two ounces).
Overall, the mission has already checked several boxes: the probe was not damaged on contact, the harvesting mechanism was activated, and Osiris-Rex was able to safely get away from Bennu’s surface.
“The Osiris-Rex mission outperformed in every way,” said NASA chief Jim Bridenstine.
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