The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Space => Topic started by: Elderberry on July 09, 2022, 02:06:27 pm

Title: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Elderberry on July 09, 2022, 02:06:27 pm
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 (https://www.space.com/asteroid-bennu-nearly-ate-osiris-rex)
Title: Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Kamaji on July 09, 2022, 02:16:00 pm
Interesting.
Title: Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Gefn 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.
Title: Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Smokin Joe on July 10, 2022, 01:48:37 am
Quote from: Gefn 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.
You and me, both.
Title: Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Free Vulcan on July 10, 2022, 12:44:39 pm
(https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/space-slug.jpg)

That's no asteroid.
Title: Re: Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft
Post by: Kamaji on July 15, 2022, 11:47:31 am
Quote from: Free Vulcan on July 10, 2022, 12:44:39 pm
(https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/space-slug.jpg)

That's no asteroid.


:silly: