OSIRIS-Rex – Atlas V 411 (AV-067) – Canaveral SLC-41 – 08.09.2016 23:05 UTC

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 13 ч. назад

Home stretch! Last week's deep space maneuver lined me up for a series of asteroid approach maneuvers this fall that will get me to Bennu by December. It's going to be a busy rest of the year. More on my whereabouts:
http://bit.ly/WhereIsOREX 

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/osiris-rex-executes-second-deep-space-maneuver

July 3, 2018

Successful Second Deep Space Maneuver for OSIRIS-REx Confirmed


Illustration of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a burn of its main engine.
Credits: University of Arizona

New tracking data confirms that NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully completed its second Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-2) on June 28. The thruster burn put the spacecraft on course for a series of asteroid approach maneuvers to be executed this fall that will culminate with the spacecraft's scheduled arrival at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3.

The DSM-2 burn, which employed the spacecraft's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thruster set, resulted in a 37 miles per hour (16.7 meters per second) change in the vehicle's velocity and consumed 28.2 pounds (12.8 kilograms) of fuel.

Tracking data from the Deep Space Network provided preliminary confirmation of the burn's execution, and the subsequent downlink of telemetry from the spacecraft shows that all subsystems performed as expected.

DSM-2 was OSIRIS-REx's last deep space maneuver of its outbound cruise to Bennu. The next engine burn, Asteroid Approach Maneuver 1 (AAM-1), is scheduled for early October. AAM-1 is a major braking maneuver designed to slow the spacecraft's speed from approximately 1,130 to 320 miles per hour (506.2 to 144.4 meters per second) relative to Bennu and is the first of four asteroid approach maneuvers scheduled for this fall.

Спойлер

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission's observation planning and processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing spacecraft 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. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the agency's New Frontiers Program for its Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Original Maneuver Update: June 28, 2018

OSIRIS-REx Executes Second Deep Space Maneuver

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its second Deep Space Maneuver today, which put the spacecraft on course for its scheduled arrival at the asteroid Bennu in December. The mission team will continue to examine telemetry and tracking data as they become available and will have more information on the results of the maneuver over the next week.

Last Updated: July 5, 2018
Editor: Rob Garner

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 15 ч. назад

Butterfly in the sky
I can fly twice as high
Take a look
I'm on my way
To a B-Type asteroid

My journey #ToBennuAndBack continues: http://bit.ly/WhereIsOREX 

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 17 ч. назад

The new #WordOfTheWeek is Spectroscopy. I have three spectrometers on board: OTES, OVIRS, and REXIS. The data they collect during my survey of Bennu will help my team understand the asteroid's thermal properties and map the elements and minerals on its surface.

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Aerojet Rocketdyne‏ @AerojetRdyne 4 авг.

Last week @OSIRISREx completed its 2nd successful deep #space maneuver w/ help from @AerojetRdyne propulsion! The next engine burn in October will be the first of four approach maneuvers as the spacecraft gets closer to encounter with Bennu.
#BennuOrBust

[Pirat5]

с 17 августа начинается Approach Phase

https://www.asteroidmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/SPP-Approach-Poster-6-28-18.pdf

ждём-с

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 9 ч. назад

I'm now more than103 million kilometers (64 million miles) from Earth. #WhereIsOSIRISREx More on my whereabouts: http://bit.ly/WhereIsOREX 

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 21 ч. назад

I'm almost ready to begin asteroid operations, so it's fitting that our final #WordOfTheWeek is ground truth. The data I collect as I approach and survey Bennu will be used to ground truth information we have about the asteroid from telescopic observations.

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 3 ч. назад

Today, after a nearly two-year journey, I begin Asteroid Operations and my final approach toward Bennu! #AreWeThereYet

More on the upcoming phases of the mission: http://bit.ly/AsteroidOps 

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https://www.asteroidmission.org/asteroid-operations/

ASTEROID OPERATIONS

Asteroid Operations for the OSIRIS-REx mission begin in August 2018 – when the spacecraft will capture its first image of Bennu from a distance of about 1.2 million miles (two million km) – and continue until March 2021 – when the spacecraft begins its return trip to Earth. The spacecraft's official Arrival at Bennu is scheduled for Dec. 3, 2018, when OSIRIS-REx transitions from flying toward Bennu to operating around Bennu. While at the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will survey and map Bennu, navigate in close proximity to the asteroid, and ultimately touch the surface for five seconds to gather a sample of the asteroid.

Asteroid Operations are divided into nine phases, which are each specifically designed to allow the mission team to build its knowledge of the asteroid, learn how to safely navigate the spacecraft in microgravity, and identify the best sample site.


 
APPROACH
Approach Phase begins on August 17, 2018, when the spacecraft is still about 1.2 million miles (two million km) away from Bennu, and it continues until the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid on December 3, 2018. The primary goals of Approach are to visually locate Bennu for the first time, survey the surrounding area for potential hazards, and collect enough imagery of Bennu for scientists to generate a detailed shape model of the asteroid, assign a coordinate system, and understand its spin state.

[Pirat5]

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-host-media-briefing-on-mission-to-return-asteroid-sample-to-earth

Aug. 20, 2018
MEDIA ADVISORY M18-123

NASA to Host Media Briefing on Mission to Return Asteroid Sample to Earth


Illustration of NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu.
Credits: NASA

NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 24, to provide an update on upcoming activities related to the agency's first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, which launched on Sept. 8, 2016, started asteroid science operations last week, began imaging asteroid Bennu for the first time, and is now preparing to conduct the necessary approach maneuvers to rendezvous with Bennu on Dec. 3.

The mission represents a valuable opportunity to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the sources of water and organic molecules on Earth, and the hazards and resources in near-Earth space.

The briefing participants are:

[/li]
• Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters
• Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson
• Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx flight dynamics system manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
• Sandy Freund, OSIRIS-REx mission support area manager at Lockheed Martin Space
  

Media who would like to ask questions by phone must send an email with their name and affiliation to Lonnie Shekhtman at lonnie.shekhtman@nasa.gov by noon Aug. 24. Questions also can be submitted during the teleconference via Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Last Updated: Aug. 20, 2018
Editor: Karen Northon

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasas-osiris-rex-begins-asteroid-operations-campaign

Aug. 24, 2018

NASA's OSIRIS-REx Begins Asteroid Operations Campaign

After an almost two-year journey, NASA's 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 mission's asteroid operations campaign on Aug. 17, the spacecraft's PolyCam camera obtained the image from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km).


On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This cropped set of five images was obtained by the PolyCam camera over the course of an hour for calibration purposes and in order to assist the mission's navigation team with optical navigation efforts. Bennu is visible as a moving object against the stars in the constellation Serpens.
Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Спойлер

​OSIRIS-REx is NASA's 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. 


NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018 ) is entering its approach phase. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at asteroid Bennu in December, 2018. OSIRIS-REx will help unveil the mysteries of our solar system's formation.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson
This video is public domain and can be downloaded from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

"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 Bennu's 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 can't wait to see what Bennu reveals to us."


NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018 ) is entering its approach phase.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson
This video is public domain and can be downloaded from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

As OSIRIS-REx approaches the asteroid, the spacecraft will use its science instruments to gather information about Bennu and prepare for arrival. The spacecraft's 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.

During the mission's approach phase, OSIRIS-REx will:

[/li]
• regularly observe the area around the asteroid to search for dust plumes and natural satellites, and study Bennu's light and spectral properties;
• execute a series of four asteroid approach maneuvers, beginning on Oct. 1, slowing the spacecraft to match Bennu's orbit around the Sun;
• jettison the protective cover of the spacecraft's sampling arm in mid-October and subsequently extend and image the arm for the first time in flight; and
• use OCAMS to reveal the asteroid's overall shape in late-October and begin detecting Bennu's surface features in mid-November.
  

After arrival at Bennu, the spacecraft will spend the first month performing flybys of Bennu's north pole, equator and south pole, at distances ranging between 11.8 and 4.4 miles (19 and 7 km) from the asteroid. These maneuvers will allow for the first direct measurement of Bennu's mass as well as close-up observations of the surface. These trajectories will also provide the mission's navigation team with experience navigating near the asteroid.

"Bennu's low gravity provides a unique challenge for the mission," said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "At roughly 0.3 miles [500 meters] in diameter, Bennu will be the smallest object that any spacecraft has ever orbited."

The spacecraft will extensively survey the asteroid before the mission team identifies two possible sample sites. Close examination of these sites will allow the team to pick one for sample collection, scheduled for early July 2020. After sample collection, the spacecraft will head back toward Earth before ejecting the Sample Return Capsule for landing in the Utah desert in Sept. 2023.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing 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. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the agency's New Frontiers Program for its Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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Nancy Neal Jones
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Erin Morton
University of Arizona, Tucson

Last Updated: Aug. 24, 2018
Editor: Karl Hille

[tnt22]

http://tass.ru/kosmos/5490145

Космический зонд OSIRIS-REx сделал первые снимки астероида Бенну

Космос | 25 августа, 10:38 UTC+3


Астероид Бенну
© NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

ВАШИНГТОН, 25 августа. /Корр. ТАСС Ярослав Азаров/. Американский научный космический аппарат OSIRIS-REx сделал первые снимки астероида Бенну после двух лет с момента запуска. Об этом сообщило Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA) в ходе брифинга для журналистов.

Сообщается, что первые пять снимков были сделаны 17 августа с расстояния в 2,2 млн км. Если сделать из этих снимков анимацию, то можно разглядеть пятно света, которое движется между миллионами звезд. По словам профессора Университета Аризоны Данте Лауретта, участвующего в поддержке миссии OSIRIS-REx, команда долго ждала подобного подтверждения, что зонд движется в правильном направлении.

Спойлер

"Я не могу передать, как это много значит для команды, - заявил он. - Я знаю, что это всего лишь точка света, но многие из нас работали многие годы, чтобы увидеть этот снимок". "В первую очередь мы узнали, что астероид именно там, где мы предполагали. Он ждет нас. Команда, занимающаяся навигацией зонда, проделала фантастическую работу!" - сказал Лауретта. Уточняется, что приблизительный бюджет научной миссии составляет $1 млрд.

OSIRIS-REx является одним из трех аппаратов, созданных экспертами NASA для запуска в дальний космос по программе New Frontiers. Этот зонд оснащен несколькими приборами, в том числе фотокамерами, спектрометрами и лазерным дальномером. Аппарат должен выйти на орбиту вокруг Солнца, по которой вращается астероид Бенну, догнать его и приступить к изучению. Затем будет предпринята операция по захвату грунта на астероиде с помощью руки-манипулятора, снабженной специальным пневматическим устройством. В общей сложности сотрудники NASA рассчитывают собрать от 60 г до 2 кг астероидного грунта.

По словам специалистов, одна из главных целей этого проекта - получение новых данных о строении и составе астероидов, представляющих потенциальную опасность для нашей планеты. Впоследствии эти сведения могут быть использованы при организации специальных миссий по предотвращению астероидной угрозы. Предполагается, что пробу грунта на астероиде аппарат возьмет в 2019-2020 годах. А возвращение на Землю спускаемой капсулы зонда намечается на сентябрь 2023 года.

Как ожидается, изучение этой пробы грунта поможет ученым лучше понять, как протекало формирование Солнечной системы. Диаметр Бенну составляет около 550 м, он вращается по эллиптической орбите вокруг Солнца. Астрономы относят его к Аполлонам - астероидам, орбиты которых пересекают орбиту Земли. Вероятность столкновения с ним составляет один к 4000. Его падение на Землю было бы эквивалентно взрыву мощностью 2,7 Мт в тротиловом эквиваленте.

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 25 авг.

In just 100 days, I'm scheduled to arrive at Bennu and begin studying and mapping the #asteroid up close! Between now and then, Bennu will transform from a dot in the distance into a whole new world. Here's my current itinerary for the journey: http://bit.ly/AsteroidOps 

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OSIRIS-REx Approach Trailer

NASA Goddard

Опубликовано: 24 авг. 2018 г.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018 ) is entering its approach phase. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at asteroid Bennu in December, 2018. OSIRIS-REx will help unveil the mysteries of our solar system's formation.

(0:32)

[tnt22]

NASA's OSIRIS-REx Approaches Asteroid Bennu

NASA Goddard

Опубликовано: 24 авг. 2018 г.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018 ) is entering its approach phase. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at asteroid Bennu in December, 2018. OSIRIS-REx will help unveil the mysteries of our solar system's formation.

(5:19)

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NASA Goddard‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAGoddard 3 ч. назад

A curious effect of sunlight could change the orbit of asteroids. OSIRIS-REx will measure this, the Yarkovsky effect, from close-up to help scientists predict the movement of Bennu and other asteroids.


(video 0:02)

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NASA's OSIRIS-REx‏Подлинная учетная запись @OSIRISREx 13 ч. назад

I'm less than 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from #asteroid Bennu! It now takes almost 13 minutes round-trip for me to communicate with the team on the ground. More about my progress on the journey #ToBennuAndBack: http://bit.ly/WhereIsOREX 

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/29/two-nasa-probes-catch-first-glimpses-of-primordial-targets/

Two NASA probes catch first glimpses of primordial targets
August 29, 2018 | Stephen Clark


On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu fr om a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This cropped set of five images was obtained by the PolyCam camera over the course of an hour for calibration purposes and in order to assist the mission's navigation team with optical navigation efforts. Bennu is visible as a moving object against the stars in the constellation Serpens.
Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Two NASA spacecraft — the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and the New Horizons probe at the edge of the solar system — have captured their first looks at their targets as they approach a pair of primordial relics for the first time.

The imagery will improve in the coming months, before each mission's target finally becomes fully resolved late this year.

Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx is approaching asteroid Bennu, a dark, carbon-rich world measuring approximately 1,640 feet (500 meters) in diameter. The New Horizons spacecraft, on an extended mission after flying by Pluto in July 2015, has its sights set on a distant, frozen world nicknamed Ultima Thule nearly 4 billion miles (more than 6 billion kilometers) fr om Earth.

Nearly two years after its launch, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has commenced its final approach to asteroid Bennu. The probe aimed its long-range imager toward the asteroid and captured a series of pictures Aug. 17 fr om a distance of around 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers), revealing Bennu as a faint dot moving against a field of background stars.

"I know Bennu is only a point of light here, but many of us have been working for years and years and years to get his image down," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission fr om the University of Arizona.

The imagery taken Aug. 17 showed OSIRIS-REx was right on track to arrive at Bennu on Dec. 3, when it will begin a series of close passes over the asteroid to map the object for the first time, before entering orbit around Bennu on Dec. 31.

Спойлер

"There was a lot of good news in this image for us," Lauretta told reporters in a conference call Friday. "First of all, the asteroid is right wh ere we thought it was, so it's there and it's waiting for us. The spacecraft was also wh ere it was supposed to be, and pointing in the (right) direction."

OSIRIS-REx has worked flawlessly since leaving Earth in 2016, officials said, successfully making a brief return to its home planet last year for a gravity assist flyby that re-routed its orbit around the sun toward Bennu.

Bennu is currently about as bright as a 13th magnitude star, far too dim to be visible with the naked eye — if someone was riding along with OSIRIS-REx. But the asteroid will get brighter as the spacecraft makes its approach, finally filling OSIRIS-REx's camera view in late November and early December.

OSIRIS-REx stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, a $1 billion mission designed to bring back to Earth at least 2 ounces (60 grams), and potentially more than a pound, of rock specimens from Bennu.

"First and foremost, we are an origins mission," Lauretta said. "We are seeking to return samples of a carbonaceous asteroid that we believe dates back to the formation of our solar system."


Simulated cratering and topography are overlaid on radar imagery of asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA/GSFC/UA/Mike Nolan-Arecibo Observatory/Bob Gaskell-Planetary Science Institute

When the solar system formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, chunks of rock and ice collided as they circled the sun like the balls on a billiard table, eventually building up planets. The leftovers became asteroids and comets, and scientists believe Bennu still harbors the basic organic molecules that were present in the early solar solar system, the stuff that may have helped seed life.

The spacecraft carries three cameras — one for long-range viewing, a color camera for mapping, and another imager to take pictures as OSIRIS-REx collects samples from the asteroid's surface. The rest of OSIRIS-REx's suite of science instruments includes a thermal emission spectrometer to detect heat coming from the asteroid, a visible infrared spectrometer to locate minerals and organic materials, a laser altimeter provided by the Canadian Space Agency to create topographic maps, and a student-built X-ray spectrometer to identify individual chemical elements present on the asteroid.

As the craft zeroes in on Bennu, scientists will use its cameras to survey the region around the asteroid for debris, which could pose a hazard to OSIRIS-REx when it moves closer. So far, ground-based observations of Bennu using a high-power radar have discovered no such debris, raising hopes that the corridor toward the asteroid is safe.

In October, controllers at Lockheed Martin, which built OSIRIS-REx, will unlatch the probe's robotic arm from its launch restraint for the first time. Over several days, the ground team will command the arm to bend its joints and jettison a launch cover over the sample collection mechanism, which will release compressed air during a touch-and-go maneuver to force gravel and surface material into an on-board chamber for return to Earth.

OSIRIS-REx is closing its range toward Bennu at a relative velocity of around 1,100 mph, or nearly 1,800 kilometers per hour, according to Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx flight dynamics system manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

A braking burn using OSIRIS-REx's liquid-fueled propulsion system in mid-October will slow the craft's approach to just 11 mph (18 kilometers per hour).

"Ultimately, our last approach maneuver — AAM-4 — on Nov. 12 will adjust our approach to target arrival at a position that's 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from Bennu on Dec. 3," Moreau said. "This event will signify our official rendezvous with Bennu."


This mosaic compares the size of asteroid Bennu, to scale, with other asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft. Credit: NASA/University of Arizona/ESA/JAXA

Navigators will analyze imagery beamed back from OSIRIS-REx to precisely locate the asteroid and fine-tune the spacecraft's rendezvous.

OSIRIS-REx will follow a pre-planned trajectory, with the help of multiple course correction burns, over the poles of Bennu in December, allowing scientists to precisely measure the asteroid's mass for the first time. The data will help scientists and navigators better understand Bennu's tenuous gravity field, critical information needed to chart OSIRIS-REx's orbit around the asteroid.

Bennu's gravity will ensnare OSIRIS-REx into orbit Dec. 31, and the asteroid will become the smallest planetary body ever orbited by a spacecraft. Due to the asteroid's weak gravity, OSIRIS-REx will move around Bennu at a speed of just one-tenth of a mile per hour, or about 5 centimeters per second.

Orbital speeds are determined by the gravitational pull of the parent planet or star. For comparison, objects in low Earth orbit have to travel at around 17,500 mph (7.8 kilometers per second) to avoid falling back into the atmosphere.

"It's Bennu's size and small mass that make the navigation challenges on this mission unprecedented, really," Moreau said.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was orbited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft from 2014 through 2016, is between five and 10 times larger than Bennu, depending on how you measure. Asteroid Ryugu, wh ere Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is currently exploring, is nearly twice the size of Bennu, and Hayabusa 2 will not enter orbit around it.

OSIRIS-REx will survey Bennu for more than a year before attempting a touch-and-go descent in July 2020 to snag samples from the asteroid. The spacecraft will depart Bennu and head back to Earth, releasing its sample carrier for re-entry and landing in Utah in September 2023.

Scientists will take the samples to an ultra-clean facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for detailed analysis.

New Horizons gets first look at Ultima Thule

Спойлер

When it zips by Ultima Thule at the outer frontier of the solar system Jan. 1, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will catch a much more fleeting glimpse of its target than the years-long campaign planned for OSIRIS-REx.

Like Bennu, Ultima Thule — officially known as 2014 MU69 — is a leftover from the solar system's chaotic formation. Located in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of relatively small proto-planets beyond the orbit of Neptune, Ultima Thule will become the most distant object ever visited when New Horizons arrives on New Year's Day.

More than three years past its historic encounter with Pluto, New Horizons spotted Ultima Thule with its telescopic camera Aug. 16, earlier than predicted.


The figure on the left is a composite image produced by adding 48 different exposures from the News Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 29.967 seconds, taken on Aug. 16, 2018. The predicted position of the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule is at the center of the yellow box, and is indicated by the yellow crosshairs, just above and left of a nearby star that is approximately 17 times brighter than Ultima. At right is a magnified view of the region in the yellow box, after subtraction of a background star field "template" taken by LORRI in September 2017 before it could detect the object itself. Ultima is clearly detected in this star-subtracted image and is very close to wh ere scientists predicted, indicating to the team that New Horizons is being targeted in the right direction. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

"Our team worked hard to determine if Ultima was detected by LORRI at such a great distance, and the result is a clear yes," said Alan Stern, New Horizons's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "We now have Ultima in our sights from much farther out than once thought possible. We are on Ultima's doorstep, and an amazing exploration awaits!"

Astronomers observing Ultima Thule from the ground using the object's occultation of stars have concluded the mini-world likely has an elongated shape, and it may consist of two or three separate components, including a small moonlet orbiting nearby. Scientists are still crunching data from another stellar occultation observation earlier this month in hopes of narrowing down Ultima Thule's shape and size, which is estimated to be around 20 miles (30 kilometers) across, assuming it is a single object.

Discovered in 2014 by the Hubble Space Telescope, Ultima Thule is still incredibly faint in New Horizons's viewfinder, and scientists had to analyze 48 individual images to locate the target amid a field of brighter stars. New Horizons is still around 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) from Ultima Thule, but is closing its distance by nearly 800,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) each day.

The high-speed flyby with Ultima Thule, scheduled for 12:33 a.m. EST (0533 GMT) on New Year's Day, will give New Horizons just one chance to record imagery of the faraway world, a billion miles beyond Pluto. New Horizons does not have the fuel to slow down and linger in Ultima Thule's vicinity.

The newest images from New Horizons are the farthest ever taken, breaking a record set NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990, when that probe turned back toward the inner solar system to take the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth.

"The image field is extremely rich with background stars, which makes it difficult to detect faint objects," said Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist and LORRI principal investigator from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. "It really is like finding a needle in a haystack. In these first images, Ultima appears only as a bump on the side of a background star that's roughly 17 times brighter, but Ultima will be getting brighter – and easier to see – as the spacecraft gets closer."

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