NASA’s Earth-Bound Asteroid Probe Successfully Performs First Course Correction Maneuver

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has a particular package deal for Earth: rocky samples from one of the vital historical objects within the universe. The probe snagged a pattern from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and has been making its method for an Earth drop-off ever since. To maintain it on monitor, NASA lately executed the spacecraft’s first course correction maneuver by altering its trajectory in direction of our planet.

The OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to ship samples from asteroid Bennu on September 24, 2023. The plan is for the spacecraft to drop off its valuable cargo through the scheduled flyby, after which period the capsule containing the asteroid samples will carry out a parachute-assisted touchdown at the Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range within the Great Salt Lake Desert.

For this to work, nonetheless, the spacecraft’s incoming trajectory should be exact. “If the capsule is angled too high, it will skip off the atmosphere,” Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy mission supervisor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, stated in a statement. “Angled too low, it will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.” To make certain the valuable samples keep protected, NASA will conduct a collection of maneuvers over the subsequent 12 months to deliver the spacecraft nearer to Earth at a exact pace and course.

On September 21, the workforce behind the mission fired the spacecraft’s thrusters for 30 seconds, altering the spacecraft’s trajectory for the primary time because it parted methods with Bennu on May 10, 2021, the area company introduced on Friday. The first maneuver may have OSIRIS-REx move Earth at a distance of about 1,367 miles (2,200 kilometers), whereas the ultimate correction subsequent 12 months will deliver it to inside 155 miles (250 kilometers) from the floor. At that distance, the spacecraft will be capable to safely drop off the samples.

OSIRIS-REx launched on September 8, 2016. The mission is NASA’s first try to return floor supplies from an asteroid such that it may be anazlyed in a lab. Its goal Bennu is a near-Earth object that orbits the Sun each 436.6 days and is believed to have shaped 4 billion years in the past. By analyzing samples from Bennu, scientists can get a greater thought of the kind of supplies that existed within the early photo voltaic system.

After OSIRIS-REx drops off the pattern from Bennu to Earth, the spacecraft will go off on one other journey to rendezvous with one other asteroid, Apophis.

More: Walking on Asteroid Bennu Would Be Like Stepping Into a Ball Pit, NASA Says