2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has begun the final flight to asteroid Bennu, where it will arrive in December 2018. The scientific program of the mission will last two years, during which time the device will take soil from the surface of the asteroid, the capsule with which it will drop to Earth in September 2023. This was reported in a press release on the NASA website.
The robotic interplanetary station OSIRIS-REx was launched into space using the Atlas V launch vehicle in September 2016. The device will reach its main target - the 500-meter near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu - in December 2018, and the total mission will last about seven years. Bennu is a member of the Apollo group and belongs to the carbon asteroids of spectral class B, the study of such objects can provide important information about the formation and evolution of the Solar System. In addition, it is believed that carbon-rich asteroids such as Bennu may be responsible for supplying complex organic compounds such as amino acids and water to a young Earth.
Now the station is located at a distance of about two million kilometers from the asteroid and has begun the stage of the final approach to it. According to the plan, the scientific program of the mission will last about two years, during which time the station will study from orbit the composition of the surface layer of the asteroid and its structure, as well as measure the Yarkovsky effect, which can affect the orbits of near-Earth asteroids. After studying the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will collect a soil sample using a special manipulator. During contact, the instrument will blow nitrogen over the asteroid and lift dust and rock fragments from the surface. After collecting the soil, in March 2021, the spacecraft will go back, it is expected that OSIRIS-REx will drop a capsule with soil to Earth in September 2023.
Another active mission for the delivery of soil from an asteroid is the automatic station Hayabusa-2. The station on June 27, 2018 arrived at its target - the asteroid 162173 Ryugu, which belongs to the most common type of asteroid - class C. The study of the chemical properties of its substance will allow scientists to judge the composition of the protosolar nebula.
