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Among those following along was assistant professor and cosmochemist
Jessica Barnes, assistant professor of planetary sciences and a collaborating sample scientist on the mission. She and her colleagues at the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory were elated when the touch-and-go event succeeded. Then they worried after the mission team learned some particles were escaping the sample collector and spent two days working around the clock to secure the material. That was a really surreal time, Barnes said.
Around the time Barnes learned the collector head had been closed with an abundant sample, she received more good news: Someone had made a $1.5 million gift toward sample analysis. The gift will enable the purchase of a nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometer, an instrument the analysis team will use to help find answers to fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system. The project is funded in part by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as we
NASA s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Returning to Earth With Asteroid Bennu Sample in Tow
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NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft was originally launched from Florida s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on September 8, 2016. OSIRIS-REx s main objective is to retrieve a sample from Bennu, the near-Earth asteroid the spacecraft landed on in 2018.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Monday began its two-and-a-half-year trek back to Earth, NASA revealed in a same-day announcement.
According to the news release, the spacecraft fired its main engines for some seven minutes, thrusting it away from asteroid Bennu at approximately 600 miles per hour (965 kilometers per hour).
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Completes Last Asteroid Flyby Before Heading Home By Ryan Whitwam on April 8, 2021 at 7:01 am
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NASA’s ambitious Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) has been in orbit of the asteroid Bennu since 2018, but it’s getting ready to call it a day and head home. NASA reports that OSIRIS-REx has completed a last-minute addition to its mission profile: one final flyby of Bennu to see how its activities changed the surface of the object.
OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu in late 2018, but NASA spent almost two years studying the space rock before OSIRIS-REx got down to business. The spacecraft’s Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) allowed it to drift down and tap the asteroid, discharging a burst of compressed nitrogen. OSIRIS-REx did just that in late 2020, scooping up what could be more tha
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) In 2020, NASA made significant progress on America’s Moon to Mars exploration strategy, met mission objectives for the Artemis program, achieved significant scientific advancements to benefit humanity, and returned human spaceflight capabilities to the United States, all while agency teams acted quickly to assist the national COVID-19 response.
“NASA has impressed the nation with our resilience and persistence during the pandemic,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We made history with a U.S. commercial partner, made groundbreaking discoveries, advanced science, furthered aeronautics research and technology development, and even joined in the fight against COVID-19. We met an incredibly challenging year with incredible achievements and established a path for continued success.”