NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, will make a daring attempt to “TAG” asteroid Bennu on October 20 – touch its surface and collect a sample for return to Earth. Experience the sample collection event in 360 and watch as OSIRIS-REx contacts the rocky surface of sample site Nightingale on Asteroid Bennu.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer, Narrator/Jonathan North (USRA): Animator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Michael Lentz (USRA): Art Director/Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support/ Music is “Fight for the Kingdom” from Enrico Cacace and Lorenzo Castellarin
Rehearsals will be performed before the sampling event, during which the solar arrays will be raised into a Y-shaped configuration to minimize the chance of dust accumulation during contact and provide more ground clearance in case the spacecraft tips over (up to 45°) during contact. The descent will be very slow to minimize thruster firings prior to contact in order to reduce the likelihood of asteroid surface contamination by unreacted hydrazine propellant. Contact with the surface of Bennu will be detected using accelerometers, and the impact force will be dissipated by a spring in the TAGSAM arm.
Upon surface contact by the TAGSAM instrument, a burst of nitrogen gas will be released, which will blow regolith particles smaller than 2 centimetres (0.8 in) into the sampler head at the end of the robotic arm. A five-second timer will limit collection time to mitigate the chance of a collision. After the timer expires, the back-away maneuver will initiate a safe departure from the asteroid.
OSIRIS-REx will then halt the drift away from the asteroid in case it is necessary to return for another sampling attempt. The spacecraft will use images and spinning maneuvers to verify the sample has been acquired as well as determine its mass and verify it is in excess of the required 60 grams (2.1 oz). In the event of a failed sampling attempt, the spacecraft will return for another try. There is enough nitrogen gas for three attempts.
In addition to the bulk sampling mechanism, contact pads on the end of the sampling head will passively collect dust grains smaller than 1 mm, upon contact with the asteroid. These pads are made from tiny loops of stainless steel.
After the sampling attempt, the Sample-Return Capsule (SRC) lid will be opened to allow the sampler head to be stowed. The arm will then be retracted into its launch configuration, and the SRC lid will be closed and latched preparing to return to Earth.
When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018, its close-up images confirmed what mission planners had predicted nearly two decades before: Bennu is made of loose material weakly clumped together by gravity, and shaped like a spinning top. This major validation, however, was accompanied by a major surprise. Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but were instead greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders – the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields. Now, thanks to laser altimetry data and high-resolution imagery from OSIRIS-REx, we can take a tour of Bennu’s remarkable terrain.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA/University of Arizona/CSA/York University/MDA/Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer/Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer/Jonathan North (USRA): Animator/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator/Dan Gallagher (USRA): Narrator/Erin Morton (The University of Arizona): Support/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Support/“Timelapse Clouds” by Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra; “The Wilderness” by Benjamin James Parsons; “Maps of Deception” by Idriss-El-Mehdi Bennani, Olivier Louis Perrot, and Philippe Andre Vandenhende
This video uses images from NASA’s Juno mission to recreate what it might have looked like to ride along with the Juno spacecraft as it performed its 27th close flyby of Jupiter on June 2, 2020.
During the closest approach of this pass, the Juno spacecraft came within approximately 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) of Jupiter’s cloud tops. At that point, Jupiter’s powerful gravity accelerated the spacecraft to tremendous speed – about 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet.
Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created the video using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam instrument. The sequence combines 41 JunoCam still images digitally projected onto a sphere, with a virtual “camera” providing views of Jupiter from different angles as the spacecraft speeds by.
Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Using data collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, this animation shows the trajectories of particles after their emission from asteroid Bennu’s surface. The animation emphasizes the four largest particle ejection events detected at Bennu from December 2018 through September 2019. Additional particles, some with lifetimes of several days, that are not related to the ejections are also visible.
Video credit: M. Brozovic/JPL-Caltech/NASA/University of Arizona
NASA’s Lucy mission is launching in 2021 and will fly by seven different Trojan asteroids that are orbiting the same distance from the Sun as Jupiter. This video highlights the four main science objectives and the instruments aboard the spacecraft that will be utilized. Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids, which are remnants of our early solar system.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Produced & Edited by: David Ladd (USRA)/Animations by: David Ladd (USRA), Walt Feimer (KBRwyle), Jacquelyn DeMink (USRA), Michael Lentz (USRA), Jonathan North (USRA)/Music: “Feels Good” – Wally Gagel & Xandy Barry [ASCAP], provided by Universal Production Music
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