NASA had just landed on the asteroid Bennu. You need to know about the mission

Editors note: Osiris-Rex has gone down on Bennu. Here is the coverage of our event. Below are our answers to all your questions about the mission.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft In short Touch down on large asteroids Swipe some rocks and dust from its surface to return to Earth for study on Tuesday and NASA on Wednesday Images first batch revealed. This event is a major first for NASA and a potential boon for our understanding of science, space exploration and the solar system.

Sample collection of Touch-and-Go, or T, G, Asteroid 101955 Bennu, at about 3:12 p.m. NASA broadcast the tour live on NASA TV and the agency’s website. You can find the livestream revatch at the end of this section. To answer all your other questions, read on.

When did the mission start?

Osiris-Rex has existed as a concept since at least 2004, when a team of astronomers first proposed it to NASA. After more than a decade of development, the spacecraft Launched on September 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, A joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, on top of the Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance. The spacecraft then flew to Benu 26 months later, officially arriving on December 3, 2018.

Since then, the mission team has spent nearly two years around the diamond-shaped space stone, surveying and preparing its specimen to select the best sampling site. In recent months, rehearsals have led to an attempt at sample collection.

Why Bennu?

Bennu, also known as the “rubble pile” asteroid, was formed in the deep deep cosmic past when gravity slowly pushed together with the remains of an ancient collision. The result is something like a body-shaped spinning top with a diameter of about a mile (500 m) and large rocks and boulders on the surface.

Bennu is thought to be the window to the solar system’s past: an ancient, carbon-rich body that hindered the formation of both planets and life. Some of these resources, such as water and metals, are suitable for mining at some point in the future on Earth or for space exploration.

The asteroid has another characteristic that makes it interesting to scientists and humans in general – it has the potential to affect Earth in the distant future. Bennu ranks No. 2 on NASA’s list of impact hazards. Current data show dozens of potential effects in the last quarter of the 22nd century, although all have a one-minute chance to actually pass.

How does the tag work?

For anyone who has ever wrestled with robots or entered a robotics competition, the Osiris-Rex mission seems to be the culmination of a young robotist’s dreams. The touch and go sample procedure is a complex, high-stakes task that has been building up to a significant culmination moment over the years. If it succeeds, it will play a role in history and our future in space.

The original plan is that Osiris-Rex would approach Bennu on a rock Landing site Nightingale Dub. The van-size spacecraft will need to negotiate building-size stones around the landing area in order to communicate in a space as large as a few parking spaces. However, the robotic sampling arm will be the only part of Osiris-Rex that actually lands on the surface. One of the three pressurized nitrogen canisters will run a fire to excite a sample of dust and small rocks, which can be caught in the hand collector’s head to keep it safe and return to Earth.

It will take about four hours to land on the surface of the bennu, taking about as long as an asteroid to make a complete revolution. After this slow approach, the actual TAG sample collection process lasts significantly less than 16 seconds.

Preparations for the tour are not as planned. Mission organizers initially hoped that the surface of Bennu would have plenty of potential landing sites, mainly covered with a fine material comparable to sand or gravel. It turns out that Bennu’s surface is much rougher than any real welcome landing sites.

After re-evaluating the mission over the last two years, the team decided to try to “lead the needle” through the boulder-filled landscape in Nightingale.

It’s all paid off, so far. Osiris-Rex was able to touch down, But we may not know for sure that it collects samples later until October. Fortunately, if the tag failed, the spacecraft could try again – it is equipped with three nitrogen canisters to disperse and disrupt the surface, which means the team makes three attempts in the direction of capturing the sample.

Then what

Immediately after collecting his specimens, Osiris-Rex fires his thrusters to get back from Bennu. The spacecraft maneuvered the departure the following year and will continue to hang over Benu for the rest of 2020 before embarking on a two-year journey to Earth.

On September 24, 2023, Osiris-Rex will make its sample return capsule Jetison, which will land in the Utah Desert and be retrieved for study.

Has this not happened before?

Yes. Japan’s Haibusa spacecraft successfully returned to Earth in 2010 with small grains from the planet 25143 Itokawa. His successor, Hayabusa-2, In 2019 a special copper bullet was fired at the giant asteroid Ryugu And then received some from the shrapnel. That sample is in the direction of returning to Earth.

How can I see?

CNET The Highlights Channel covered the event live. You can watch the stream again below: