The US probe will land on the asteroid Bennu on October 20

After a four-year journey, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx robotic spacecraft will descend to the rock-covered surface of the asteroid Bennu on Oct.20, landing for a few seconds to collect rock and dust samples, the agency said Thursday. .

Scientists hope the mission will help deepen our understanding of how planets formed and life began, and provide insight into asteroids that could impact Earth.

“The years of planning and hard work by this team essentially boils down to putting the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) in contact with the surface for just five to 10 seconds,” said Mike Moreau, Project Associate. of OSIRIS-REx manager.

NASA has chosen a site called Nightingale, a rocky area 52 feet (16 meters) in diameter, for the spacecraft’s robotic arm to attempt to collect a sample, because it contains the most amount of fine-grained material without obstructions.

The spacecraft, about the size of a large pickup, will need to land in an area the size of a few parking spots, taking care to avoid the surrounding rocks.

Because the spacecraft and Bennu will be approximately 207 million miles (334 million kilometers) from Earth, it will take about 18.5 minutes for the signals to travel between them.

This avoids the live command of flight activities, so the spacecraft must perform the sequence autonomously.

OSIRIS-REx is supposed to collect at least 2 ounces (57 grams) of the rocky material from Bennu to bring it back to Earth, the largest sample return from space since the Apollo program.

It will deliver its payload to Earth on September 24, 2023.