Science
Related: About this forumNASA's OSIRIS-REx Begins Asteroid Operations Campaign (i.e. approaching target now)
After an almost two-year journey, NASAs asteroid sampling spacecraft, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), caught its first glimpse of asteroid Bennu last week and began the final approach toward its target. Kicking off the missions asteroid operations campaign on Aug. 17, the spacecrafts PolyCam camera obtained the image from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km).
OSIRIS-REx is NASAs first mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, survey the surface, collect a sample and deliver it safely back to Earth. The spacecraft has traveled approximately 1.1 billion miles (1.8 billion km) since its Sept. 8, 2016, launch and is scheduled to arrive at Bennu on Dec. 3.
Now that OSIRIS-REx is close enough to observe Bennu, the mission team will spend the next few months learning as much as possible about Bennus size, shape, surface features, and surroundings before the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid, said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. After spending so long planning for this moment, I cant wait to see what Bennu reveals to us.
As OSIRIS-REx approaches the asteroid, the spacecraft will use its science instruments to gather information about Bennu and prepare for arrival. The spacecrafts science payload comprises the OCAMS camera suite (PolyCam, MapCam, and SamCam), the OTES thermal spectrometer, the OVIRS visible and infrared spectrometer, the OLA laser altimeter, and the REXIS x-ray spectrometer.
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more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasas-osiris-rex-begins-asteroid-operations-campaign
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,042 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,623 posts)It all starts coming together right away.
Thank you for this great article.