Bennu

13 Aug

NASA mission picks 4 sites for asteroid Bennu sample return

Washington: After grappling with the rugged reality of asteroid Bennu's surface, NASA, the US space agency, has finally selected four potential sites for its spacecraft to "tag" its cosmic dance partner.Since its arrival in December 2018, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has mapped the entire asteroid in order to identify the safest and most accessible spots for the spacecraft to collect a sample. These four sites now will be studied in further detail in order to select the final two sites -- a primary and backup -- in December, NASA said in a statement on Tuesday."We knew that Bennu would surprise us, so…

22 Sep

NASA’S OSIRIS-REX mission to flyby Earth on Friday

Washington: NASA's asteriod hunting OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is all set to make a close flyby of Earth on Friday, before reaching asteroid Bennu, media has reported.The Earth's gravity will fling the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, travelling at a staggering speed of 19,000 miles (30,758 km) per hour, upward by about six degrees so that its trajectory will match the tilt of the orbit of asteroid Bennu, nytimes.com reported on Thursday. OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) was launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 rocket on September 8, 2016 to study samples from the asteroid Bennu -- a type…