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 the main part of its mission this week by managing to capture some rocks from the surface of a potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu, NASA reported Friday.
The spacecraft was soon fleeing in Benno, traveling 200 million miles and four years to collect bits of its surface by blasting compressed gas. The space agency on Wednesday shared the first batch of images of the daring operation, revealing a delicate-yet-explosive moment between a rock and a robot.
When touched by the spacecraft’s robotic sampling arm, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TamGusum, it did just as much as it does to the cosmic pickpocketing maneuver. Mission organizers expect the total contact time between the arm and the asteroid to be less than 16 seconds. When the initial data was released, it showed that the duration of the contact was only six seconds, while most of the sample collection took place only in the first three.
The spacecraft, which operated largely autonomously due to an 18-minute communication delay in mission control on Earth, fired a gas canister through Tangsum that disrupted Bennu’s surface and pushed the sample into the hand collector’s head.
Photographs taken of the head on Thursday show that so much was accumulated that some large boulders seem to have failed to make it all the way inside, with a Mylar Flinging installed to partially seal the container, allowing some small pieces of dust and gravel to form. Came. Escape back into space.
22 Oct This series of three images, captured by the spacecraft’s Semcam camera, shows the typical head on the Osiris-Rex filled with rocks and dust collected from the surface of Bennu. They also show that some of these particles are slowly coming out of the sample head.
NASA
“Bennu has continued to amaze us with great science and has thrown some curves,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, in a statement. “And although we should move faster to stove the specimen, that’s not a bad problem. Given the abundant specimens that appear, we look forward to inspiring science for even more decades than this historic moment.”
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.
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NASA successfully landed the Osiris-Rex spacecraft on a planet …
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Osiris-Rex tugs a boulder
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 for sampling, but it turned out that Bennu is a waste ile glow, with hard stones.
About 24 hours after the operation, NASA shared the first images of the touchdown operation captured by the spacecraft. Tagsam moves forward in position and the nitrogen contacts the surface of the head bennu taking its sample before an explosive explosion occurs. 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. The hand was reduced to about 10 centimeters per second when approaching the sample site, 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. Friday reported that it believes Osiris-Rex collects enough samples and starts stoves quickly, ignoring the mass size of the planned sample and canceling the braking burn to keep spacecraft acceleration to a minimum.
“We’re working here to achieve our own success, and my job is to return as much of the Benu sample as safely as possible,” said Dante Lure Retta, chief investigator at the University of Arizona Osiris-Rex.
The Osiris-Rex team celebrates the touchdown moment.
NASA TV
The mission connects with Haibusa and Japan Hibusa-2 mission In the years of asteroid exploration. Hybusa sampled and returned a small bit from the asteroid It ok Kawa, and Hybusa 2 is in the process of returning a significant sample of space rock rock Rayugu.
Once the samples are taken, the team will begin preparations for a long voyage to Earth, with a planned landing in the Utah Desert in September 2023.
