Post

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

Watch what it's like to sample an asteroid. On 20 October 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft positioned itself above asteroid Bennu and used its sampling system to grab material for return to Earth. Rather than being a solid chunk of rock, Bennu turned out to have the cohesion of a ball pit.

35 reposts143 likes

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

These sequence of images, taken over about three hours prior to, during, and immediately after the sampling event, show how the spacecraft attitude changed to accommodate sampling. Note especially the enormous cone of ejected material moving over the asteroid as the spacecraft backed away.

Dwayne Day
@kennen11.bsky.social

Asteroid sample return was one of the missions we put onto the NF list with our 2007 New Opportunities in Solar System Exploration (NOSSE) report. Before that, it had been proposed at a Discovery level. We discussed what added requirements would put it at a New Frontiers level.

mrxexon
@mrxexon.bsky.social

The solar system is full of it. Cause the very early solar system was a real demolition derby. It took a long time to settle down to what it is now. And I'm betting pieces of a pulverized martian surface is in some of those asteroids cause it all went into space.

Plot Twist Daily
@plot-twist-daily.bsky.social

Wild part of that touchdown: the surface offered almost no resistance. The sampler sank about half a metre in seconds, and the team later worked out that without the back-away burn the craft would have kept sinking. Bennu's top layer acts more like a ball pit than rock. It still returned 121.6 g.