Author Topic: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft  (Read 983 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Space.com by Elizabeth Howell 7/8/2022

It was a close call, but OSIRIS-REx's unexpected adventure might help improve planetary defense techniques.

NASA's asteroid-sampling spacecraft had a near-death experience at Bennu, according to the mission team.

In October 2020, the agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft nearly sank into the surface of the rubbly asteroid while picking up rocks for shipment to Earth in 2023, team members revealed Thursday (July 7). The spacecraft only escaped getting stuck or sinking into oblivion within Bennu by firing its thrusters at the right moment.

"We expected the surface to be pretty rigid," principal investigator Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, told Space.com. "We saw a giant wall of debris flying away from the sample site. For spacecraft operators, it was really frightening."

More: https://www.space.com/asteroid-bennu-nearly-ate-osiris-rex

Offline Kamaji

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Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2022, 02:16:00 pm »
Interesting.

Offline Gefn

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Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2022, 02:17:58 pm »
Space is cool.

I’m hoping in my next life, visiting planets and moons will be a reality.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2022, 01:48:37 am »
Space is cool.

I’m hoping in my next life, visiting planets and moons will be a reality.
You and me, both.
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Offline Free Vulcan

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Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2022, 12:44:39 pm »


That's no asteroid.
The Republic is lost.

Offline Kamaji

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