A. NASA The spacecraft has successfully landed on a planet, to measure the size of buildings, to collect a handful of cosmic debris back to Earth for analysis.
The space agency team behind the Osiris-Rex project said the data showed that the collection had gone according to plan and that the spacecraft had removed the surface of the planet Bannu.
“I can’t believe we actually figured it out,” said Dante Loretta, chief scientist at the University of Arizona. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”
NASA’s Osiris-Rex
(@OSIRISREx)The rear burn is complete 🛑✅ I am now at a safe distance from Benu. pic.twitter.com/bXk2ufSneS
Jim Brydenstein, NASA’s administrator, congratulated us: “We are on our way to return the largest specimen ever brought home from Apollo. If all goes well, scientists will study this pattern for future generations. ”
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft, pulling the mission team’s chairs, confirmed its brief contact with the planet Benu, located at a distance of more than 200 miles (322 meters). But it could be a week ago when scientists knew how much, if anything, was captured or if any more effort would be needed. If successful, Osiris-Rex will return samples in 2023.
US Mission Is run by Japan called Hebusa 2That’s due to the return of samples collected from the 4.5 billion-year-old star-studded Ryugu to Earth in December. When it lands in the Australian desert, it will be the first submarine to return to Earth.
At Benu, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft took four-and-a-half hours to reach the surface from its tight or rabbit, first sent by ground controllers near Denver by the following commands.
As the ship’s hull is just over 1,670 feet (510 meters), Benu’s gravity was too low for Osiris-Rex to land. As a result, the spacecraft had to land with its 11-foot (3.4-meter) robotic arm and attempt to capture at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of Benu.
Heather Enos of the University of Arizona, the mission’s deputy scientist, described it as “kissing the surface with a small touch measured in seconds”.
The coronavirus epidemic caused a two-month delay. Tuesday’s work was considered the most tragic part of the mission, which began in 2016 with a launch from Cape Canaveral.
Osiris-Rex, a van-sized spacecraft aimed at a space equal to some parking spaces on Earth in the center of the planet’s nightingale crater. After orbiting Bannu for almost two years, the spacecraft found a place where the largest patch of small particles was swallowed.
After determining that the coast was clear, Osiris-Rex closed in the last few yards for sampling. The spacecraft was programmed to expel nitrogen gas that pressurized it to move on the surface, then a loose rock or dust sucker.
Scientists want to place the construction blocks of our solar system between 2 solar (60 grams) and 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of Benu’s black, crushed, carbon-filled materialist thinking.
Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s science mission, compared Benu to the Rosetta Stone, saying, “All this tells the history of our entire planet, the solar system, over the last billions of years.”
Another benefit: Benu has a slight chance of breaking the earth by the end of the next century, although this is not a life-threatening demonstration. The more scientists know about the pathways and properties of potentially dangerous space rocks like this, the better. If it’s small, Osiris-Rex can do three touch-and-go tricks. No matter how hard you try, the samples won’t return to Earth until 2023, to close the $ 800m-plus search. The sample capsule will parachute into the Utah Desert.
“It will be another big day for us. But right now it’s the biggest mission event ever, “said NASA scientist Lucy Lim.
Meanwhile, NASA plans to launch three more home missions, all one-way trips, over the next two years.
With the Associated Press
