OSIRIS-REx Mission Explained
After a seven-year mission to a remote carbonaceous asteroid called Bennu, a small sample container blazed through the Earth’s atmosphere Sunday morning returning the first ever samples from that object….
After a seven-year mission to a remote carbonaceous asteroid called Bennu, a small sample container blazed through the Earth's atmosphere Sunday morning returning the first ever samples from that object. As explained in this week's NASA video, the entire mission was conducted autonomously, although in mid-mission, NASA had to reprogram the satellite so it could land on Bennu's unexpectedly rough surface without tipping over. It did and successfully navigated back to Earth over the next two years. The vehicle scooped up about 300 grams of material that's expected to provide important knowledge about the origins of the universe.
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