During a dress rehearsal in April, the spacecraft sampled hands on a target sample site, known as the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism.
NASA
NASA Asteroid Chaser Osiris-Rex Completed a brief and historic landing on Tuesday on a potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu 200 million miles from Earth. On Wednesday, the space agency shared the first batch of images of the daring operation, revealing a delicate-yet-explosive moment between a rock and a robot.
Osiris-Rex traveled it all for short touch-and-go maneuvers. Its main goal is to collect a sample from the surface of the asteroid and transport it to Earth for study.
On Tuesday, NASA TV handed out a robotic sample of the spacecraft, which was approached on a Bennu called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TamGusam. During the short contact, he did just how much of a cosmic pickpocketing maneuver. Mission organizers expect the total contact time between the arm and the asteroid to be less than 16 seconds. When preliminary data was released on Wednesday, it showed that the duration of the contact was only six seconds, while most of the sample was made only in the first three.
The spacecraft, which operates largely autonomously due to an 18-minute communication delay in mission control on Earth, fired a can of gas through the tangsum, which disrupted Bennu’s surface and should enable the sample to enter the hand collector’s head. .
The Osiris-Rex was built to touch a flat, even surface, but Bennu is too rocky, the team can’t find the right place. Fortunately, Osiris-Rex performed his composition well and was able to run his samples on a site called Natinigal, which is only as large as a few spaces.
See this:
NASA successfully landed the Osiris-Rex spacecraft on a planet …
4:44
Osiris-Rex tugs a boulder
About 24 hours after the operation, NASA shared the first images of the touchdown operation captured by the spacecraft. Tagsam moves forward in the position and the head of the sampling nitrogen makes contact with the surface of the bennu before the nitrogen explodes. This operation involves a ton of debris that flies around the acquisition arm. It’s really something!
Touchdown!
NASA
Although the above GIF appears to be relatively fast, the operation has progressed more delicately. When the sample approached the site the hand was lowered about 10 centimeters per second, much slower than the walking speed.
The team’s goal is to collect about 60 grams of dust, dirt and gravel from the surface of Bennu. To determine if that goal has been achieved, Osiris-Rex has drilled a safe distance and will now move his hand in a position to take photos of the collector’s head and weigh how much mass he has.
There is no guarantee that Osiris-Rex has collected significant specimens. As the spacecraft approached and then orbited and surveyed Bennu for two years, it became clear that this small world was different from what scientists expected. The team hoped to find a number of sandy surfaces to take samples from, but it turned out that Bennu is a waste ile glow, with hard stones.
The Osiris-Rex team celebrates the touchdown moment.
NASA TV
Further criteria will be required to confirm the content to confirm the sample, but if Osiris-Rex succeeds, it will join the Japanese hibusa and Hibusa-2 mission In the years of asteroid exploration. Hibusa took a small portion of the asteroid Itokawa and returned it, and Hibusa 2 is in the process of returning a significant specimen of the space rock Ryugu.
If the mission collects a sample, it will embark on a long journey back to Earth, with a planned landing in the Utah Desert in September 2023.
21: Qt. To clarify how much time was spent on Onsiris-Rex Bennu.
