{"id":74974,"date":"2020-09-25T10:58:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/us-probe-to-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu-on-october-20\/"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:58:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:58:11","slug":"us-probe-to-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu-on-october-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/us-probe-to-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu-on-october-20\/","title":{"rendered":"#US probe to touch down on asteroid Bennu on October 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#US probe to touch down on asteroid Bennu on October 20<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"The
\n The asteroid Bennu, as photographed by OSIRIS-REx, on December 2, 2018
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After a four-year journey, NASA’s robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx will descend to asteroid Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface on October 20, touching down for a few seconds to collect rock and dust samples, the agency said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Scientists hope the mission will help deepen our understanding of how planets formed and life began and provide insight on asteroids that could impact Earth.<\/p>\n

“Years of planning and hard work by this team are essentially coming down to putting the TAGSAM (Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) into contact with the surface for just five to 10 seconds,” said Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager.<\/p>\n

NASA has chosen a site called Nightingale, a rocky area 52 feet (16 meters) in diameter, for the spacecraft’s robotic arm to attempt to collect a sample, because it holds the greatest amount of unobstructed fine-grained material.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft, about the size of a large van, will need to touch down in an area about the size of a few parking spots, taking care to avoid surrounding boulders.<\/p>\n

Because the spacecraft and Bennu will be app<\/a>roximately 207 million miles (334 million kilometers) from Earth, it will take about 18.5 minutes for signals to travel<\/a> between them. <\/p>\n

This prevents the live commanding of flight activities, so the spacecraft will need to perform the sequence autonomously.<\/p>\n

OSIRIS-REx is supposed to collect at least 2 ounces (57 grams) of Bennu’s rocky material to bring back to Earth \u2013- the largest sample return from space since the Apollo program. <\/p>\n

It will deliver its payload to Earth on September 24, 2023.<\/p>\n\n

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OSIRIS-REx is one rehearsal away from touching asteroid Bennu\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n US probe to touch down on asteroid Bennu on October 20 (2020, September 25)
\n retrieved 25 September 2020
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2020-09-probe-asteroid-bennu-october.html<\/p>\n

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