OSIRIS-REx Mission "EMPOWER IAS"

News:

• NASA spacecraft grabs sample of rocks from asteroid Bennu.

 

About:

• A NASA spacecraft touched down on the rugged surface of the Bennu asteroid on 20 th October 2020, grabbing a sample of rocks dating back to the birth of our solar system to bring home.
• The minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, extended its 11- foot robotic arm toward a flat patch of gravel near Bennus north pole and plucked the sample of rocks, the space agency's first handful of pristine asteroid rocks.
• The probe will send back images of the sample collection on 21 st October 2020 and throughout the week so scientists can examine how much material was retrieved and determine whether the probe will need to make another collection attempt.
• If a successful collection is confirmed, the spacecraft will journey back toward Earth, arriving in 2023.
• Japan is the only other country to have already accomplished this.

 

Asteroid Bennu:

• Bennu is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
• It was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
• Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four per cent of the light that hits it, which is very low when compared with a planet like Venus, which reflects about 65 per cent of the light. Earth reflects about 30 per cent.
• Around 20-40 per cent of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s formation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.

 

 

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

• The OSIRIS-REx mission stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explore.
• The spacecraft launched in 2016 from Kennedy Space Center for the journey to Bennu.
• It has been in orbit around the asteroid for nearly two years preparing for the touch and go maneuver.
• The robotic arm's collection device, shaped like an oversized shower head, is designed to release a pressurized gas to kick up debris.
• The spacecraft orbited the asteroid for nearly two years, observing it in detail. This resulted in the closest orbit for a spacecraft around an object, setting a Guinness World Record.