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NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe ready to touch the asteroid Bennu: it will ‘bombard’ it to collect samples of its rock and bring them to Earth. It is an event expected around the world because it is the first time that an American probe will attempt the undertaking, scheduled to start around 11.00 Italian hours and which will last more than four hours. In ANSA Scienza the images of the live streaming with NASA.
Collecting a sample directly from an asteroid offers a unique opportunity to study rocks that date back to the formation of the Solar System more than 4.5 billion years ago. “While planets and moons have changed over the millennia, many of these little bodies have not,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division.
“Asteroids – he added – are like time capsules that can provide fossil evidence of the birth of our Solar System.” The probe, launched in 2016, will attempt to collect samples from an area in the center of the Nightingale site, 16 meters in diameter, selected because it is rich in fine-grained material, but rocks the size of a building loom over the region.
To collect the samples, the pickup-sized probe will have to attempt to land in an area the size of a parking space. The collection of samples will have a total duration of 4.5 hours and involves three maneuvers to reach the surface of the asteroid.
The descent sequence It begins with Osiris-Rex firing thrusters to leave its safe orbit about 770 meters from the surface of Bennu and descend to the ground. Upon reaching a height of 125 meters, the probe will perform another maneuver to adjust the position and adjust the speed.
Approximately 11 minutes later, at an altitude of 54 meters, the spacecraft will brake and begin to aim at its target.
Then it will descend to the surface, touch it for less than 16 seconds and ignite one of its three pressurized nitrogen cylinders. The gas will lift the material off Bennu’s surface as the probe moves away. Once at a safe distance, the probe will extend its 3.4 meter long robotic arm to collect the samples: 60 grams of dust and gravel to be brought to Earth in 2023
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