OSIRIS-REx satellite & 101955 Bennu asteroid

[bb49]

I just finished watching a fascinating hour long documentary on NOVA, KCTS.

OSIRIS-REX is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission (satellite)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx
The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least 60 g (2.1 oz) from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid, and return the sample to Earth for a detailed analysis. The material returned is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth

Q01955 Bennu a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu

OSIRIS was launched just over two years ago and a day or two ago, October 20, it touched down and captured samples of dust and rock from Bennu.
In a few months it leaves the orbit of Bennu to return home on September 24, 2023.

For those interested, the documentary is called Touching the Asteroid and is repeated October 23 & 25.

[Catsumi]

It was good. Well worth the time

[JagXKR]

Actual footage of the touchdown onto Bennu.

https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

[Jlabute]

Cool pile of rubble held together with a very weak gravitation force. Bennu is not a big rock and may be as much as 60% empty space. Bennu's gravity is 8 micro-g's. Bennu rotates every 4.3 hours and that rate is gradually increasing. It may spin itself apart one day.

[JagXKR]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa ... oid-sample

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is ready to perform an early stow on Tuesday, Oct. 27, of the large sample it collected last week from the surface of the asteroid Bennu to protect and return as much of the sample as possible.

On Oct. 22, the OSIRIS-REx mission team received images that showed the spacecraft’s collector head overflowing with material collected from Bennu’s surface – well over the two-ounce (60-gram) mission requirement – and that some of these particles appeared to be slowly escaping from the collection head, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).

So successful they got too much.