{"id":12161,"date":"2020-10-20T17:47:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T09:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-lands-on-asteroid-in-bid-to-collect-samples\/"},"modified":"2020-10-20T17:47:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T09:47:03","slug":"nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-lands-on-asteroid-in-bid-to-collect-samples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-lands-on-asteroid-in-bid-to-collect-samples\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft lands on asteroid in bid to collect samples"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s illustration of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touching down on asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/CI Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A robotic arm extended from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly contacted the rugged surface of asteroid Bennu Tuesday to gobble up pristine samples, a climactic moment in the $1 billion mission to bring asteroid material back to Earth in 2023.<\/p>\n

The daring touch and go landing was the first attempt by a U.S. spacecraft to collect a sample from an asteroid. Once the specimens are back on Earth, scientists hope to learn more about the origin and evolution of the solar system.<\/p>\n

The materials could provide clues about how water and the seeds of life made their way to Earth.<\/p>\n

Signals racing across a 207-million-mile (333-million-kilometer) gulf between Bennu and Earth reached OSIRIS-REx mission control at 6:12 p.m. EDT (2212 GMT), confirming the spacecraft gently touched down on the airless asteroid after a glacial final descent at just 0.2 mph (10 centimeters per second).<\/p>\n

Cheers erupted at the Lockheed Martin control center near Denver, where scientists and engineers tracked OSIRIS-REx as it moved in for an automated touch and go landing. Navigation algorithms on-board the spacecraft safely guided OSIRIS-REx to an on-target touchdown within a predetermined zone the size of a tennis court, avoiding a craggy 23-foot-tall (7-meter) nearby boulder that scientists dubbed \u201cMount Doom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, telemetry data from the spacecraft confirmed its sampling mechanism \u2014 known as the TAGSAM \u2014 fired a bottle of high-pressure nitrogen gas. The discharge was expected to stir up dust and gravelly material into a sample collection chamber at the end of OSIRIS-REx\u2019s 11-foot-long (3.35-meter) robotic arm.<\/p>\n

After spending just seconds on the asteroid\u2019s surface, OSIRIS-REx pulsed thrusters to back away from Bennu. The spacecraft can fly around Bennu with tiny impulses from its rocket engines, thanks to asteroid\u2019s tenuous gravity field.<\/p>\n

Preliminary data Tuesday suggested the spacecraft executed the touch and go, or TAG, maneuver as planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pyro bottles fired,\u201d said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx\u2019s principal investigator from the University of Arizona. \u201cTAGSAM operated, the back-away thrusters fired, so we\u2019re safely moving away from the asteroid surface. The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do. So we did it. We tagged the surface of the asteroid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists hoped the mission collected at least 2.1 ounces, or 60 grams, of specimens from Bennu. But it will take about a week to confirm how big of a sample OSIRIS-REx scooped up from the asteroid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on the way to returning the largest sample brought home from space since Apollo,\u201d tweeted NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. \u201cIf all goes well, this sample will be studied by scientists for generations to come!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer launched from Cape Canaveral in September 2016 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft reached Bennu in December 2018, and has surveyed the asteroid at centimeter-scale resolution for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

The explorer found Bennu was more rugged than scientists expected. Instead of arriving at an asteroid with fields of fine-grained soils, OSIRIS-REx returned images showing Bennu was covered in boulders.<\/p>\n

Engineers devised a new way for OSIRIS-REx to navigate around the asteroid using natural feature tracking algorithms. The guidance system compared real-time images from the spacecraft\u2019s navigation cameras to a topographic map loaded into the on-board computer, allowing OSIRIS-REx\u2019s autopilot control system to determine its location and avoid contacting dangerous hazards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have overcome the amazing challenges that this asteroid has thrown at us, and the spacecraft appears to have operated flawlessly,\u201d Lauretta said on NASA TV\u2019s broadcast of the touch and go landing. \u201cWe made it down to the asteroid surface. We were in contact. The gas bottles fired.\u201d<\/p>\n