[ad_1]
Copy link
NASA announced that its spacecraft had progressed as part of a ground defense mission against an asteroid likely to collide with it.
The space probe (OSIRIS-REx) has recently reached the asteroid 101955 Bennu, which could collide with the Earth after a trip of more than two years from September 2016, according to the website "TNW".
The task will be to allow the return to Earth of samples of the targeted asteroid, making it the second step after the missions of the Japanese space agency Hayabusa 1 and 2 and Stardust.
The data provided by the asteroid sample will help protect the Earth from the impact of its potential collision and to learn more about the origins of the solar system.
The following year, the satellite will conduct a detailed study of the surface of the Pino asteroid, with a diameter of 492 meters, including the identification of the most appropriate landing sites.
Once the site is selected, the spacecraft will land for about five seconds to collect a sample of the surface material with nitrogen to separate the extracted components from the surface of the asteroid.
The spacecraft contains enough gas to extract three sets of samples from the surface of the asteroid, the sample of which should contain between 60 and 2,000 grams of material covering the hard rocks. .
[ad_2]
Source link
