On Tuesday, October twentieth, NASA impacted the world forever when the OSIRIS-REx mission effectively finished a “touch-and-go” sample collection maneuver with asteroid 101955 Bennu more than 200 million miles away from Earth. And now, we have the timelapse to demonstrate it.
NASA Makes History Once Again
NASA shared a sum of 82 images from the shuttle’s SamCam imager covering the methodology, the touchdown at sample sight Nightingale, and the “back-away burn.” The slideshow was caught throughout the span of around five minutes, and covers everything from around 82 feet (25 meters) over the asteroid, through the back-away burn, and up until the art accomplished an elevation of roughly 43 feet (13 meters), kicking up a ton of material en route. The video underneath clarifies the maneuver in more detail, and show the full 82-picture arrangement:
Altogether, the specialty went through only 6 seconds touching the actual asteroid, yet that was sufficient to gather samples of the asteroid’s regolith for examination on Earth. “The shuttle’s testing arm – called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) – is apparent in the lower part of the edge. The round head toward the finish of TAGSAM is the lone piece of OSIRIS-REx that reached the surface during the sample collection occasion,” clarifies NASA. “In the picture succession, the inspecting head positions itself to contact the asteroid’s surface head-on. Not long after, the testing head impacts site Nightingale and enters Bennu’s regolith.”
You can find out about it. You can witness it. In any case, it’s still difficult to comprehend that something worked by people just touched a piece of room rock skimming 200 million miles away from Earth… and took pictures. Look at the images and video above to see everything for yourself, and then head over to the NASA site in the event that you need to find out additional.
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