NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has shaped the asteroid Bennu like boot prints on the moon. Now, new images captured during the spacecraft’s final overflight on April 7th reveal the aftermath of its historic encounter with the asteroid.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has shaped the asteroid Bennu like boot prints on the moon. Now, new images captured during the spacecraft’s final overflight on April 7th reveal the aftermath of its historic encounter with the asteroid.
This image sequence shows how Bennu’s local surface has changed after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully performed its TAG sample acquisition maneuver (Touch-And-Go) on October 20, 2020. The earlier picture (left) was taken on March 7th. 2019 using the spacecraft’s PolyCam instrument as part of the mission’s global mapping campaign. The picture on the right was taken on April 7, 2021 as part of a final observation campaign to document the condition of the surface after the TAG. Nightingale example location is in the relatively clear area directly above the center of the crater – visible in the center of the earlier image. The large, dark boulder in the middle on the right measures 13 meters on its longest axis.
Credits: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona
Download full resolution versions of these images and other related multimedia content from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio
The spacecraft flew within 3.7 km of the asteroid – the closest since the Touch-and-Go (TAG) sampling event on October 20, 2020. During the TAG, the spacecraft’s sampling head sank 1.6 feet (48.8 centimeters) into the surface of the asteroid and at the same time fired a pressurized charge of nitrogen gas, which kicked up surface material and propelled something into the collection chamber. The spacecraft’s engines also fired rocks and dust during the maneuver to reverse course and safely move away from the asteroid.
Comparing the two images shows obvious signs of a surface disturbance. There appears to be a depression at the sampling point with several large boulders visible at the bottom, suggesting that sampling exposed them. Against the generally dark background of the surface, the amount of highly reflective material near the TAG point increases markedly and much of the rocks have been moved.
Substantial mass movement can be seen where engines fired against the surface. Several sub-meter boulders were shaped by the springs into a ring fire-like shape around the campfire – similar to boulders seen around small craters that covered the surface.
Bennu’s surface was disturbed in three different ways: by the force of the spacecraft touchdown; through the sampling mechanism that collected material by blowing gas into its collection filter; and by four of the spacecraft’s reverse engines, which moved the spacecraft away from the sample location (marked with a red “X” in the second of these two images) and moved dust and boulders on the surface. The image above shows the TAG site and highlights (red circle) a large boulder that was thrown about 12 meters high. Credits: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona Download full resolution versions of these images and other related multimedia content from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Jason Dworkin, the project scientist for the mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noted that a boulder 1.25 meters in diameter at the edge of the sampling site only appeared to appear in the post-TAG image. “The stone probably weighs about a ton, with a mass somewhere between a cow and a car.”
Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona and the mission’s chief investigator later pointed out that this boulder is likely one of the ones in the picture before the DAY, but much closer to the sample location, and estimates that it is over a distance of 40 feet was thrown (approximately 12 meters) when sampling.
In order to compare the before and after pictures, the team had to carefully plan this final transfer. “Bennu is rough and rocky. So if you look at it from a different angle or capture it at a point in time when the sun is not directly overhead, the appearance of the surface changes dramatically, ”says Dathon Golish, a member of the OSIRIS-REx working group on image processing based on from the University of Arizona. “These pictures were purposely taken around noon, with the sun shining straight down when there weren’t that many shadows.”
“These observations weren’t included in the original mission plan, so we were excited to go back and document what we did,” Golish said. “The team really got together for this final hurray.”
The spaceship will remain near Bennu until departure on May 10, when the mission begins its two-year return journey to Earth. As it nears Earth, the spaceship will drop the Sample Return Capsule (SRC), which contains Bennu’s sample. The SRC will then travel through Earth’s atmosphere on September 24, 2023 and land under parachutes on the Utah Test and Training Range.
Once extracted, the capsule is transported to the curation facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the sample is taken for distribution to laboratories around the world so that scientists can study the formation of our solar system and the earth as habitable planets. NASA will make 75% of the sample available for future generations to study with technologies that have not yet been invented.
The OSIRIS-REx mission is the first NASA mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, examine the surface, and collect a sample for delivery to Earth.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has shaped the asteroid Bennu like boot prints on the moon. New images captured during the spacecraft’s last overflight on April 7, 2021 now show the aftermath of the historic TAG touch-and-go sample capture event on October 20, 2020.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, offers the entire mission management, system technology, security and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the lead researcher, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the planning and computing of the scientific observation mission. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, administered by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Agency’s Science Missions Directorate in Washington, DC
Further information on OSIRIS-REx can be found at: https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
By Mikayla Mace Kelley
University of Arizona, Tuscon, Ariz.
and Rani Gran
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Last updated: April 15, 2021
Editor: Rob Garner
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