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OSIRIS Spacecraft Approaches Asteroid Bennu for Sample Return Mission

Since September 2016, a spacecraft called OSIRIS-Rex has been traveling through the emptiness of space, looking for an asteroid called Bennu. And it plans to pinch it.
NASA OSIRIS-Rex rendering 7 photos
Photo: NASA
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OSIRIS is currently some 1.2 million miles (two million km) away from the asteroid, and it is supposed to get out its camera and take a photo of the rock. On Tuesday, NASA announced a conference on this subject will take place on Friday, so it’s safe to assume that the shot was already taken and we’ll probably see it at the end of the week.

The spacecraft, officially called Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer is currently getting ready to reach the asteroid, an event set for December 3. Once there, the craft will be orbiting the asteroid in an attempt to determine Bennu’s mass, refine the asteroid’s spin state model, and generate a global shape model.

But the most important part of the mission will be taking a sample and bringing it back to Earth. OSIRIS will approach the asteroid, land on it for no more that five seconds and, using an instrument called TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism), take a piece of Bennu with it.

TAGSAM is an articulated arm equipped with a round sampler at its top. When the spacecraft is touching down, nitrogen gas from a canister will be released to make dust and pebbles rise and enter the sampler.

OSIRIS is equipped with three nitrogen canisters to allow the sample collecting to be repeated should the first attempt not yield the desired results.

When enough asteroid material has been gathered, it will be deposited in a return capsule. The voyage back home will begin in March 2021.

Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid with a cumulative 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting Earth between the years 2175 and 2199.

“The mission represents a valuable opportunity to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the sources of water and organic molecules on Earth, and the hazards and resources in near-Earth space,”
NASA said in a statement.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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