NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe beats its near-orbit record at Bennu asteroid



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NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampling probe broke the record of its close orbit set less than six months ago.

December 31, 2018, OSIRIS-REx began to circle the Bennu Space Rock, 1,500 feet (500 meters) wide, at an altitude of 1.3 kilometers (1.3 kilometers) – closer than ever to any probe that has already gravitated around a planetary body.

But OSIRIS-REx reduced this distance by half yesterday (June 12), performing a maneuver to cross just 0.68 km (0.62 km) from the surface of the asteroid.

RELATED: OSIRIS-REx: NASA's asteroid sampling mission in pictures

A graph putting into context the ultra-low orbit of OSIRIS-REx.

(Image: Mission © NASA / OSIRIS-REx via Twitter)

The probe will remain in this super-closed orbit, a phase known as Orbital B, until the second week of August, mission team members said. .

OSIRIS-REx will frequently photograph Bennu's horizon over the next two weeks, to help mission scientists better understand the strange particle ejection events the probe observed earlier this year. During the last five weeks of Orbital-B, the probe will map Bennu in detail with the help of most of his scientific instruments.

"All these steps are essential to the selection of the best site for collecting samples on the surface of Bennu", members of the OSIRIS-REx team wrote in an update today (June 13)

At the end of Orbital-B, the spacecraft will further increase its orbit to 1.3 km (1.3 km), which will mark the start of the Orbital-C campaign.

The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in September 2016 and with a budget of $ 800 million, aims to shed light on the beginnings of the solar system and the role that carbon-rich asteroids, such as Bennu, could contribute to life on Earth (by providing water and organic molecules on our young planet via impacts).

Much of this work will be done by scientists here on Earth. OSIRIS-REx is expected to collect a large sample of Bennu material next summer and deliver it home in a special return capsule in September 2023.

The mission team has not yet chosen a sampling site. Scientists will use the data collected during the Orbital-B phase to select four candidate sites, the relevance of which will be assessed this fall.

OSIRIS-REx is not the only mission for sampling asteroids in operation at the moment. The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 has already collected a sample Ryugu, an asteroid 3000 feet wide (900 m), should take another soon. This material will come to Earth in December 2020, if all goes according to plan.

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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