Make wishtv.com your home page

US spacecraft touches asteroid for rare rubble grab

This undated image made available by NASA shows the asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. After almost two years circling the ancient asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft descended to an
asteroid Tuesday and, dodging boulders the size of buildings,
momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble
for return to Earth.

It was a first for the United States — only Japan has scored asteroid samples.

“Touchdown declared,” a flight controller announced to cheers and applause. “Sampling is in progress.”

Confirmation
came from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft as it made contact with the surface
of the asteroid Bennu more than 200 million miles away. But it could be
a week before scientists know how much, if much of anything, was
grabbed and whether another try will be needed. If successful,
Osiris-Rex will return the samples in 2023.

“I can’t believe we
actually pulled this off,” said lead scientist Dante Lauretta of the
University of Arizona. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to
do.”

Osiris-Rex took 4 1/2 hours to make its way down from its
tight orbit around Bennu, following commands sent well in advance by
ground controllers near Denver.

Bennu’s gravity was too low for
the spacecraft to land — the asteroid is just 1,670 feet (510 meters)
across. As a result, it had to reach out with its 11-foot (3.4-meter)
robot arm and attempt to grab at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of Bennu.

The
University of Arizona’s Heather Enos, deputy scientist for the mission,
described it as “kissing the surface with a short touch-and-go measured
in just seconds.” At Mission Control for spacecraft builder Lockheed
Martin, controllers on the TAG team — for touch-and-go — wore royal blue
polo shirts and black masks with the mission patch. The coronavirus
pandemic had resulted in a two-month delay.

Tuesday’s operation
was considered the most harrowing part of the mission, which began with a
launch from Cape Canaveral back in 2016.

A van-sized spacecraft
with an Egyptian-inspired name, Osiris-Rex aimed for a spot equivalent
to a few parking spaces on Earth in the middle of the asteroid’s
Nightingale Crater. After nearly two years orbiting the boulder-packed
Bennu, the spacecraft found this location to have the biggest patch of
particles small enough to be swallowed up.

After determining that
the coast was clear, Osiris-Rex closed in the final few yards (meters)
for the sampling. The spacecraft was programmed to shoot out pressurized
nitrogen gas to stir up the surface, then suck up any loose pebbles or
dust, before backing away.

By the time flight controllers heard
back from Osiris-Rex, the action already happened 18 1/2 minutes
earlier, the time it takes radio signals to travel each way between
Bennu and Earth. They expected to start receiving photos overnight and
planned to provide an update Wednesday.

“We’re going to be looking
at a whole series of images as we descended down to the surface, made
contact, fired that gas bottle, and I really want to know how that
surface responded,” Lauretta said. “We haven’t done this before, so this
is new territory for us.”

Scientists want at least 2 ounces (60
grams) and, ideally, closer to 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of Bennu’s black,
crumbly, carbon-rich material — thought to contain the building blocks
of our solar system. Pictures taken during the operation will give team
members a general idea of the amount of loot; they will put the
spacecraft through a series of spins Saturday for a more accurate
measure.

NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, likened
Bennu to the Rosetta Stone: “something that’s out there and tells the
history of our entire Earth, of the solar system, during the last
billions of years.”

Another benefit: The solar-orbiting Bennu,
which swings by Earth every six years, has a slight chance of smacking
Earth late in the next century. It won’t be a show-stopping life-ender.
But the more scientists know about the paths and properties of
potentially hazardous space rocks like this one, the safer we’ll all be.

Osiris-Rex
could make two more touch-and-go maneuvers if Tuesday’s sample comes up
short. Regardless of how many tries it takes, the samples won’t return
to Earth until 2023 to close out the $800-plus million quest. The sample
capsule will parachute into the Utah desert.

“That will be
another big day for us. But this is absolutely the major event of the
mission right now,” NASA scientist Lucy Lim said.

Japan expects
samples from its second asteroid mission — in the milligrams at most —
to land in the Australian desert in December.

NASA, meanwhile, plans to launch three more asteroid missions in the next two years, all one-way trips.