(Pooja Dubey, Intern Journalist) US space agency NASA’s robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is going to collect samples from an asteroid for the first time on 20 October. After a four-year journey, it will land on the boulder-gray surface of the asteroid Bennu on 20 October, touching the bottom of the breastbone for a few seconds to collect samples of rock and dust. Scientists hope that this mission will help deepen our understanding of how planets are formed and how life began and will give new insights on asteroids that may affect Earth.
Osiris-Rex deputy project manager Mike Morrow said, “The result of this team’s years of planning and hard work is that TAGSAM (touch-and-go sample acquisition mechanism) is exposed to the surface for just five to 10 seconds.” Coming down. ”
NASA has chosen a rocky area 52 ft (16 m) in diameter to attempt to collect samples of the spacecraft’s robotic arm, as it has the largest amount of undiluted fine granular material.
Osiris-Rex has been circling Benue for two years and is monitoring the activities of Space Rocks. It will now land on a crater named Nightingale, spiraling. There is an area just 8 meters wide for its landing where it has to land. This will be a big task in itself.
The spacecraft is the size of a huge van. It will need to be lowered down to an area equal to the size of some parking spots. There are small buildings like rocks around it, from which it will need to escape. Osiris-Rex will have to do this work on its own. From there, there is an 18-minute gap in the movement of signals between the earth. Therefore, it would not be possible for scientists to park it in real-time.
The dust of the crater will blow through the blast of nitrogen gas and collect it in the sampling head. Scientists need at least 60 grams of sample. If there is not so much dust here, then on October 30, it will be decided what to do next. The second attempt will be made only after January 2021 on the backup site Osprey.
If all goes according to the plan of scientists, the Osiris-Rex asteroid will fly to Earth on March 2021 from Bennu and will land in the Utah desert on September 24, 2023. NASA officials consider the asteroid a ‘time capsule’ because it was made up of material left over from the planets as well.
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