{"id":12527,"date":"2020-04-15T17:17:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T09:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/osiris-rex-spacecraft-carries-out-first-of-two-rehearsals-before-sampling-asteroid\/"},"modified":"2020-04-15T17:17:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T09:17:33","slug":"osiris-rex-spacecraft-carries-out-first-of-two-rehearsals-before-sampling-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/osiris-rex-spacecraft-carries-out-first-of-two-rehearsals-before-sampling-asteroid\/","title":{"rendered":"OSIRIS-REx spacecraft carries out first of two rehearsals before sampling asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This artist\u2019s concept shows the trajectory and configuration of NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during the checkpoint rehearsal, which was the first time the mission practiced the initial steps for collecting a sample from asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Operating with on-board autonomy more than 140 million miles from Earth, NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft succeeded Tuesday in a rehearsal for the sample return mission\u2019s touch-and-go landing on an asteroid later this year.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s practice run lasted around four hours, and the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft moved as close as 213 feet (65 meters) from asteroid Bennu, closer than any point since the mission\u2019s arrival at the asteroid in December 2018.<\/p>\n

Mission managers approved the Tuesday\u2019s exercise, called the checkpoint rehearsal, to test the spacecraft\u2019s ability to deploy its sampling arm and autonomously approach asteroid Bennu.<\/p>\n

In August, OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to approach the asteroid for a touch-and-go landing to collect at least 60 grams, or 2.1 ounces, of material from Bennu\u2019s gravelly surface. OSIRIS-REx will return the samples to Earth in September 2023 for analysis by scientists inside terrestrial labs far more advanced than the instrumentation that can fit on a spacecraft.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft has been mapping Bennu with cameras, mineral-sniffing spectrometers and a Canadian-built laser to measure its roughness.<\/p>\n

Once the samples from Bennu are back on Earth, scientists will examine the specimens to search for signs of organic matter and other chemicals critical to the dawn of life.<\/p>\n

Bennu is a 1,614-foot-side (492-meter) asteroid shaped like a spinning top. The asteroid, and OSIRIS-REx, were located some 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Built and operated by Lockheed Martin, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral in September 2016. A limited number of personnel managed Tuesday\u2019s checkpoint rehearsal from a Lockheed Martin control center in Colorado, plus sites at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

Other team members participated remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

OSIRIS-REx began Tuesday\u2019s rehearsal by firing thrusters to break out of a 0.6-mile-high (1-kilometer) orbit around Bennu, then extended the robotic sampling arm, or TAGSAM, that will be used to capture rock specimens from the asteroid. OSIRIS-REx flew on autopilot throughout the decent, using a navigation program called natural feature tracking to compare images taken in real-time by the spacecraft with an on-board image catalog of Bennu\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The comparison yielded precise fixes of the spacecraft\u2019s location relative to the asteroid, guiding OSIRIS-REx through a narrow descent corridor toward Bennu.<\/p>\n

OSIRIS-REx later turned to the attitude, or orientation, for the final descent to the asteroid and adjusted its two solar array wings to a \u201cY-wing\u201d configuration to safely position them away from the asteroid\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

After a final navigation update from the landmark tracking program, OSIRIS-REx pulsed its attitude control rocket thrusters for around three seconds to begin a slow-speed fall from a distance of 410 feet (125 meters). That\u2019s the so-called checkpoint burn during the descent sequence.<\/p>\n

OSIRIS-REx\u2019s cameras and some of the craft\u2019s science instruments collected data during the descent, just as they will during the real sampling attempt later this year.<\/p>\n

After nine minutes, at a distance of 213 feet (65 meters), the spacecraft fired its thrusters again to back away from the asteroid.<\/p>\n

The images below were taken over a 10-minute span between the checkpoint burn and the completion of the back-away maneuver. The spacecraft\u2019s extended Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, arm is visible in the center of the animation.<\/p>\n

For scale, scientists say the boulder coming in from the upper right of the image frame is the size of a two-story house.<\/p>\n