To collect the wreckage of a handful of universes for analysis on Earth, NASA spacecraft successfully located on a planet, throwing the size of a building into the rock.
The team from the space agency behind the Osiris-Rex project said preliminary data showed that the sample collection went according to plan and that the spacecraft landed above the surface of the planet Bennu.
“I can’t believe we really pulled this off,” said Dante Lauretta, chief scientist at the University of Arizona. “The spacecraft did everything it had to do.”
Congratulating NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein, he said: “We are on our way to return the largest specimen ever brought home from space since Apollo. If all goes well, this sample will be studied by scientists for generations to come. ”
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft, enthusiastically led by the mission team, returned confirmation of its short contact with the asteroid Bennu at a distance of more than 200 millimeters (322 mm). But it could be a week before scientists know how much, if anything, was caught and whether another effort will be needed. If successful, Osiris-Rex will return samples in 2023.
The U.S. mission follows the name Haibusa 2, operated by Japan, which landed on Earth in December. to Billion-year-old asteroids contain specimens collected from Rayugu. When it lands in the Australian Australian Desert, it will be the first sub-surface asteroid specimen to return to Earth.
On Bennu, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft took four-and-a-half hours to reach the surface from its tight orbit, the following commands were sent in advance by land controllers near Denver.
With the asteroid only orbiting 1,670 feet (510 m), Bennu’s gravity was too low for Osiris-Rex to land. As a result, the spacecraft had to arrive with its 11-foot (3.4-meter) robot arm and Ben had to try to grab at least 2 ounces (60 grams).
Heather Enos of the University of Arizona, the mission’s deputy scientist, described it as “kissing the surface with just a short touch in one second.”
The coronavirus epidemic resulted in a two-month delay. Tuesday’s operation was considered the most difficult part of the mission, beginning in 2016 with the launch from Cape Canaveral.
Osiris-Rex, a van-sized spacecraft, targeted some of the same parking spaces on Earth in the middle of the asteroid’s nightingale crater. About two years after Bennu’s orbit, the spacecraft discovered that it was the largest patch of particles to be swallowed.
After deciding the shore was clear, Osiris-Rex closed in the final few yards to take a sample. Pressure nitrogen gas was released to move the spacecraft to the surface, then any loose green gravel or dust was sucked.
Scientists want to include the building blocks of our solar system between the black, decaying, carbon-rich material of Benus, between 2 solar nuns (60 grams) and 4 pounds (2 kg).
The head of NASA’s science mission, Thomas Zarbuchen, compared Bennu to the Rosetta Stone, “telling the history of our entire planet, the solar system, over the last billions of years.”
Second advantage: Bennu has a slight chance to smack the earth at the end of the next century, though it doesn’t stop showing life off. The more scientists know about the passage of potentially dangerous space rocks and its properties, the better. Osiris-Rex can make three touch-go-maneuvers if short. Regardless of how much effort it puts in, the samples will not return to Earth until 2023 and will stop the discovery of the 800 m-plus. The sample capsule will parachute into the Utah Desert.
“It will be another big day for us. “But, right now, this mission is a very big event,” said NASA scientist Lucy Lime.
NASA, meanwhile, plans to launch three more asteroid missions on all one-way trips over the next two years.
With the Associated Press
