October 20, the date in which we all eagerly waited for one special news. Yeah to hear the result of one of the riskiest missions of NASA- sample collection by OSIRIS-REx from Bennu’s surface. The entire team behind the mission were nervously waiting to know what happened to OSIRIS-REx. A high-pressure moment for the entire team. They did not want their efforts to go in vain.
Finally, at 6:08 p.m. (EDT), scientists on Earth received a message from OSIRIS-REx. Yes, OSIRIS-REx did its job successfully. Spacecraft touched Bennu for 6 seconds and collected samples from the surface. Very proud moment for the team and result of their efforts.
Like an Eagle catching its prey by taking a deep jump from the far heights, our OSIRIS-REx took a giant leap and clutched its target particles using its arms-TAGSAM (Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism). Yeah, it was in a hunting mood. After the keen observation on its target and many attempts and calculations, OSIRIS-REx finally clutched its target and flew away within seconds. Everything happened very fast but in a perfect way. Like the eagle raise its wings and extends its arms, OSIRI-REx raised it wings-like solar panel to avoid dust from falling on it and extended its Arms (TAGSAM) to collect samples from the surface of Bennu.
The spacecraft touched the exact place where the team planned to collect samples. Yes, the most important target place on Bennu- site Nightingale. It was very risky to touch the surface of Bennu which contains huge boulders. A small error can destroy everything. But our superhero spacecraft did its job marvellously.
Touch-And-Go (TAG)
OSIRIS-REx has also sent us some sequence of images of this auspicious moments. NASA has published those images as videos on its website. Given above is a video of that special moment. This video is made up of 82 images with 1.25 seconds between each frame. In this video, you can see the arms touching the surface of Bennu and flying back after 6seconds.
In the previous article which we published a few days back about Bennu, I mentioned some important features of the materials on Bennu. There I mentioned about 2 types of boulders on Bennu; smooth one and porous one. Here our OSIRIS-REx landed on these rocks and crushed it. You can see that moment in the below gif image.
One second after touching the surface, sample head fires nitrogen gas bottle and collected samples. They believes that the sample head collected a good amount of samples in the first 3 seconds. But we need to wait few more days to know exactly how much samples the sample-head collected. We can hope for the best. 6 seconds after the touching down, OSIRIS-REx performed a back-away burn and flew away with a speed of 40 cm per second. This back-away burn resulted in the formation of dust and disturbed the Nightingale site. You can see them in below video.
Within a few days, we may get more information regarding the samples collected by OSIRIS-REx and how much successful was the mission. Right now, OSIRIS-REx is 321 million km away from us. On September 24, 2023, OSIRIS-REx will reach home Earth and will safely hand over the samples to us. We can hopefully wait for that exciting moment.
Reference: NASA
Media credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Read our previous article on Bennu:
OSIRIS-REx Unmasked the BIGGEST SECRETS of Asteroid Bennu
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