Scheduled To Return To Earth In 2023 With Collected Samples
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRISREx) spacecraft of NASA was designed to reach and collect samples from the surface of an asteroid named Bennu, which is over 321 million kilometres away from Earth.
The spacecraft’s sampling robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) touched Bennu’s sample site named ‘Nightingale’, on October 20. It crushed some of the porous rocks underneath it. One second later, the spacecraft fired a nitrogen gas bottle, which mobilized a good amount of the sample site’s material. This phenomenon took approximately 6 seconds. After that the space craft performed a back-away burn from the surface of Bennu. It will begin its journey back to Earth in March 2021 and will reach Earth in 2023. The investigators will now work out precisely how much material might have been lifted from the surface. Studying this sample from the 4.5 billion years ago formed Bennu will help to know a great deal about how the sun and the planets came into being.