NASA has just landed on the asteroid Bennu. What you need to know about the mission

Editor’s Note: Osiris-Rex with Benn. Our coverage of the event is here. Our answers to all questions about your mission are below.

NASA Osiris-Rex spacecraft In short landed on a large asteroid Tuesday to remove some rocks and dust from its surface to return to Earth for study, and NASA on Wednesday revealed the first batch of images. The event marks a first for NASA and a potential contribution to science, space exploration and our understanding of the solar system.

The touch-and-go, or TAG, collection of 101955 Bennu asteroid samples was considered a success at around 15:12 p. NASA broadcast the TAG maneuver live on NASA television and the agency’s television receiver. At the end of this section, you will find the live review. To answer all your other questions about Benn, read on.

When did the mission start?

The Osiris-Rex concept has existed since at least 2004, when a team of astronomers first proposed the idea to NASA. After more than a decade of spacecraft development released from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 8, 2016, atop the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The spacecraft spent the next 26 months sailing to Benn, officially arriving on December 3, 2018.

Since then, the mission team has spent nearly two years in orbit of the diamond-shaped space rock, selecting the best sampling site by surveying and mapping its surface. In recent months, trials have led to sampling attempts.

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NASA successfully lands on the Osiris-Rex spacecraft on an asteroid …

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Why Bennu?

Bennu is called the asteroid “pile of stones”, which means that it formed deep in the cosmic past, when gravity slowly connected the remains of an ancient collision. The result is a body shaped like something like a spinning top with a diameter of about a third of a mile (500 meters) and a surface studded with large stones and boulders.

Bennu is seen as a window into the solar system’s past: an intact, carbon-rich body that carries the building blocks of planets and life. Some of these resources, such as water and metals, may be worth using in the future on Earth or for space exploration.

The asteroid has another feature that makes it particularly interesting for scientists and humans in general: it has the potential to hit Earth in the distant future. On NASA’s list of flu risks, Bennu ranked 2nd. Current data shows dozens of potential impacts in the last quarter of the 22nd century, although all have only a minimal chance of actually materializing.

How does TAG work?

For anyone who has ever worked with robots or even participated in a robotics competition, the Osiris-Rex mission seems to be the pinnacle of a young robotic’s dreams. The touch-and-go sampling procedure is a complex and highly interesting activity that has been taking shape for years at a crucial moment. If successful, it will play a role in history and our future in the universe.

The basic plan is that Osiris-Rex will touch Rocky Bucket landing site nicknamed Slavik. The van-sized spacecraft will have to pass building-sized boulders around the landing pad to touch a relatively clean space that’s only a few parking spaces large. However, the sampling robotic arm will be the only part of the Osiris-Rex that has actually gone to the surface. One of the three nitrogen pressure vessels ignites to agitate a sample of dust and small rocks, which can then be trapped in the arm’s collection head for safe storage and return to Earth.

The descent to Benn’s surface will take about four hours, which is roughly the time it takes for the asteroid to make a complete revolution. Following this slow approach, the actual TAG sampling procedure takes considerably less than 16 seconds.

Preparations for the TAG did not go exactly as planned. Mission organizers initially hoped that Benn’s surface would have many potential landing sites covered mostly with fine materials comparable to sand or gravel. Benn’s surface turned out to be extremely rugged with no really nice landing sites.

After spending much of the past two years re-evaluating the mission, the team decided to try a “needle crossing” through a boulder-filled landscape near Slavik.

So far everything pays off. Osiris-Rex managed to pull it off, but we’ll know for sure if he collected the sample until later in October. Fortunately, if the brand was unsuccessful, the probe may try again – it is equipped with three nitrogen vessels to fire and destroy the surface, meaning the team will have up to three attempts to obtain a sample.

What then?

Immediately after collecting his sample, Osiris-Rex shoots his jets back from Benn. The spacecraft will continue to hover over Benn for the remainder of 2020, until it finally performs a departure maneuver next year and begins a two-year journey to Earth.

On September 24, 2023, Osiris-Rex will unwrap his return capsule, which will land in the Utah desert and return to study.

Has this never been done before?

Yes. The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa successfully returned the tiny grains of asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth in 2010. Its successor, Hayabusa-2, in 2019 it fired a special copper bullet at the large asteroid Ryugu and then he got part of the fragments. This champion is returning to Earth.

How can I watch?

The event was broadcast live on CNET Highlights. You can watch the stream again below: