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Open4D writes:

EurekAlert reports: "NASA to map the surface of an asteroid"

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch September 2016 and travel to a near-Earth asteroid known as Bennu to harvest a sample of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The science team will be looking for something special. Ideally, the sample will come from a region in which the building blocks of life may be found.

The Daily Mail points out:

Bennu crosses Earth's orbit once every six years and is set to pass between the moon and our planet in 2135.
Scientists are worried the 500-metre wide asteroid's orbit could be tweaked by Earth's gravity as it passes by, causing it to smash into our planet later in the century.

[...] 'We estimate the chance of impact at about one in 2,700 between 2175 and 2196,' [Prof. Lauretta] said.

It seems this (paywalled) Sunday Times article might be the original source for the quotes from Prof. Lauretta. Here are some excerpts from the article:

"Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid, an ancient relic from the early solar system that is filled with organic molecules," said Lauretta.

"Asteroids like Bennu may have seeded the early Earth with this material, contributing to the primordial soup from which life emerged."

[...] For scientists, the chance of obtaining chunks of a carbonaceous asteroid is exciting. For the rest of us, however, Osiris-Rex's most important task may be the measurements it makes of a bizarre and newly discovered force that can send asteroids careering around the solar system and potentially towards Earth.

"The Yarkovsky effect is the force that acts on an asteroid when it absorbs sunlight and then radiates it back into space as heat. It acts like a small thruster, constantly changing its course," said Lauretta. "Bennu's position has shifted 160km [100 miles] since 1999."

It is these forces that make Bennu's trajectory so hard to predict after 2135's near-miss. It is expected to pass Earth at a distance of about 180,000 miles, well inside the moon's orbit and close enough to alter the asteroid's path so it may hit our planet on a future orbit.

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takyon writes:

Update: Launch successful.

NASA will launch the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft on Sept. 8. The spacecraft will attempt exploration and a sample return from the asteroid 101955 Bennu. It will arrive at Bennu in 2018 and map it before selecting a site for sample collection.

Space.com reports:

Bennu is thought to have formed soon after the sun, at around the same time as the solar system's planets. While the constant activity of volcanoes, earthquakes and erosion changed the chemistry of Earth's material since that time (as likely happened on other planets), Bennu remains virtually unmarred. A sample of the asteroid should therefore provide a time-capsule-like glimpse of the planets' youth, the researchers said.

[...] To complete its planned science objectives, OSIRIS-REx needs to collect a least a 2-ounce (60 grams) sample from Bennu. Once that material lands back on Earth, scientists will probe the sample with complex experiments that just aren't possible in space. [...] "This will be the largest sample-return mission since the Apollo era," said Christine Richey, OSIRIS-REx deputy program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The returned capsule will provide a bounty not only for today's scientists, but also for future generations, Richey said. Three-fourths of the sample will be archived for later study, allowing scientists to answer questions that haven't been thought of today, using instruments yet to be imagined.

Spaceflight Now has a page dedicated to providing updates on this flight: Live coverage: Thursday's Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

[Continues...]

takyon writes:

OSIRIS-REx has captured an image of Earth as it flew by our planet for a gravity assist:

"The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds)," NASA officials wrote in an image description Tuesday (Sept. 26). "Short exposure times are required for imaging an object as bright as Earth, but are not anticipated for an object as dark as the asteroid Bennu, which the camera was designed to image."

The $800 million OSIRIS-REx mission — whose name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer — launched on Sept. 8, 2016. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will arrive at the 1,640-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu late next year.

OSIRIS-REx will study the rock from orbit for more than 18 months and then head in to snag a sample of dirt and gravel from Bennu's surface in July 2020. This material will parachute to Earth's surface inside a special return capsule in September 2023.

101955 Bennu.

Previously: OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission - Launch Successful

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takyon writes:

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has imaged 2014 MU₆₉, nicknamed Ultima Thule, from about 172 million kilometers away:

Mission team members were thrilled – if not a little surprised – that New Horizons' telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) was able to see the small, dim object while still more than 100 million miles away, and against a dense background of stars. Taken Aug. 16 and transmitted home through NASA's Deep Space Network over the following days, the set of 48 images marked the team's first attempt to find Ultima with the spacecraft's own cameras.

[...] This first detection is important because the observations New Horizons makes of Ultima over the next four months will help the mission team refine the spacecraft's course toward a closest approach to Ultima, at 12:33 a.m. EST on Jan. 1, 2019. That Ultima was where mission scientists expected it to be – in precisely the spot they predicted, using data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope – indicates the team already has a good idea of Ultima's orbit.

Meanwhile, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is approaching 101955 Bennu, and has taken a series of images from a distance of about 2.2 million kilometers:

After arrival at Bennu, the spacecraft will spend the first month performing flybys of Bennu's north pole, equator and south pole, at distances ranging between 11.8 and 4.4 miles (19 and 7 km) from the asteroid. These maneuvers will allow for the first direct measurement of Bennu's mass as well as close-up observations of the surface. These trajectories will also provide the mission's navigation team with experience navigating near the asteroid.

"Bennu's low gravity provides a unique challenge for the mission," said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "At roughly 0.3 miles [500 meters] in diameter, Bennu will be the smallest object that any spacecraft has ever orbited."

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takyon writes:

Another Space Diamond! NASA Probe Snaps Great Photo of Asteroid Bennu

The asteroid Bennu is really coming into focus for NASA's approaching OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx snapped eight photos of the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu on Monday (Oct. 29), when the probe was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) away from the space rock. Mission team members combined these images into a single "super-resolution" shot, which reveals boulders and other features on the asteroid's surface.

The striking photo also highlights Bennu's diamond shape, which is similar to that of the 3,000-foot-wide (900 m) asteroid Ryugu. Japan's Hayabusa2 mission has been orbiting Ryugu since late June and has dropped three separate landing craft onto the space rock's surface over the past five weeks.

101955 Bennu has an average diameter of 492 meters, compared to about 1 kilometer for 162173 Ryugu. New Horizons will fly by (486958) 2014 MU₆₉, a 30-40 km object or objects, on January 1, capping the space rock trio for the year.

NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona photo.

Previously: New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches 2014 MU69; OSIRIS-REx Nears 101955 Bennu (images taken from 2.2 million km away)

Related: Hayabusa2 Reaches Asteroid 162173 Ryugu
Japan's Hopping Rovers Capture Amazing Views of Asteroid Ryugu
Short-Lived MASCOT Lander Reaches Asteroid Ryugu

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takyon writes:

NASA's Osiris-Rex Arriving at Asteroid Bennu After a Two-Year Journey

Launched two years ago, NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft arrives at the asteroid Bennu on Monday. Its mission is to survey the asteroid ahead of retrieving pristine bits of the solar system from the rock's surface and then bringing them back to Earth in the years ahead.

[...] Osiris-Rex is pulling in at a modest speed, and the moment of arrival is a somewhat arbitrary designation. The spacecraft started the approach phase of its mission in August when it was 1.2 million miles from Bennu. On Monday, it will be 12 miles away, although still too far away to orbit the asteroid. There should be no drama. It should be just a smooth transition to the next phase of the mission.

Osiris-Rex will make a series of passes over the asteroid at a range of 4.3 miles for an initial survey to better determine its mass, rate of spin and shape. In January, the spacecraft will get closer to Bennu, between 0.9 and 1.2 miles, and be drawn into orbit around the asteroid. It will then spend more than a year performing reconnaissance of Bennu before attempting to bounce off the surface and collect a sample of the asteroid in mid-2020.

OSIRIS-REx and 101955 Bennu.

Previously: New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches 2014 MU69; OSIRIS-REx Nears 101955 Bennu
OSIRIS-REx Approaches Bennu, Sends Photo Captured at a Distance of 330 km

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takyon writes:

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which "arrived" at the asteroid Bennu on December 3 but has been slowly approaching it for weeks, has found evidence of Bennu's interaction with liquid water in the past:

In a conference today, scientists announced that OSIRIS-REx has found evidence of hydrated minerals on the surface of Bennu using its on-board spectrometers - tools used to determine the exact chemical composition of a specific spot.

That means "evidence of liquid water" in Bennu's past, according to Amy Simon, the scientist overseeing OSIRIS-REx's spectral analysis.

"To get hydrated minerals in the first place, to get clays, you have to have water interacting with regular minerals," says Simon. "This is a great surprise."

And they're abundant, too. There's "strong convincing, evidence that the surface is dominated by these hydrated minerals," according to Dante Lauretta, leader of OSIRIS-REx's sample return mission, leading the team to believe Bennu is "water rich".

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takyon writes:

OSIRIS-REx completes New Year's Eve orbit insertion burn at asteroid

After four weeks of navigating in the vicinity of asteroid Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters for eight seconds Monday to slip into orbit around the carbon-rich object, making Bennu the smallest planetary body ever orbited by a spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu on Dec. 3, ending a journey from Earth that lasted more than two years and spanned 1.2 billion miles (2 billion kilometers). Since then, the robotic spacecraft has surveyed the 1,600-foot-wide (492-meter) asteroid through a series of flybys as close as 4.4 miles (7 kilometers) over Bennu's north pole, south pole and equator to measure the asteroid's gravitational tug on OSIRIS-REx, which helped scientists determine the object's mass.

The mass estimate helped navigators refine the parameters of OSIRIS-REx's maneuver to enter orbit around Bennu. The craft's thrusters ignited for 8 seconds at 2:43:55 p.m. EST (1943:55 GMT) Monday to slightly adjust OSIRIS-REx's velocity, nudging it just enough for Bennu's tenuous gravity to capture the probe into orbit.

[...] During the mission's first orbital phase, OSIRIS-REx is orbiting the asteroid at a range of 0.9 miles (1.4 km) to 1.24 miles (2.0 km) from the center of Bennu, setting another record for the closest distance any spacecraft has orbited to a planetary body.

Also at The Guardian.

Previously: NASA's OSIRIS-REx "Arrives" at Asteroid Bennu
NASA Finds Evidence of Water on Asteroid Bennu

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

NASA's OSIRIS-REx Ready for Touchdown on Asteroid Bennu:

​NASA's first asteroid sample return mission is officially prepared for its long-awaited touchdown on asteroid Bennu's surface. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has targeted Oct. 20 for its first sample collection attempt.

[...] From discovering Bennu's surprisingly rugged and active surface, to entering the closest-ever orbit around a planetary body, OSIRIS-REx has overcome several challenges since arriving at the asteroid in December 2018. Last month, the mission brought the spacecraft 213 ft (65 m) from the asteroid's surface during its first sample collection rehearsal — successfully completing a practice run of the activities leading up to the sampling event.

[...] The mission had originally planned to perform the first Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample collection event on Aug. 25 after completing a second rehearsal in June. This rehearsal, now scheduled for Aug. 11, will bring the spacecraft through the first three maneuvers of the sample collection sequence to an approximate altitude of 131 ft (40 m) over the surface of Bennu. The first sample collection attempt is now scheduled for Oct. 20, during which the spacecraft will descend to Bennu's surface and collect material from sample site Nightingale.

[...] During the TAG event, OSIRIS-REx's sampling mechanism will touch Bennu's surface for approximately five seconds, fire a charge of pressurized nitrogen to disturb the surface, and collect a sample before the spacecraft backs away. The mission has resources onboard for three sample collection opportunities. If the spacecraft successfully collects a sufficient sample on Oct. 20, no additional sampling attempts will be made. The spacecraft is scheduled to depart Bennu in mid-2021, and will return the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

NASA's Asteroid Mission Completes Final Test Before Sampling Run - ExtremeTech:

On August 11th, OSIRIS-REx completed its second dress rehearsal for the real deal. The spacecraft fired its engines to leave the "safe home orbit" and descend to around 410 feet (125 meters) above the surface. On the way down, OSIRIS-REx matched Bennu's rotation and came to an altitude of just 131 feet (40 meters) above Nightingale [crater]. In the video above[*], you can see Nightingale come into view at the top of the frame near the end. At that point, the engines fired again to move OSIRIS-REx back into a safe orbit.

With the practice runs complete, the team can focus all its efforts on the October 20th sample collection operation. On that day, OSIRIS-REx will drop all the way down and kiss the surface of Bennu with its sampling arm. A puff of nitrogen gas will (hopefully) launch particles from Bennu into the sample container. NASA hopes to collect about 60 grams of material from Bennu. Following the collection, OSIRIS-REx will head back to Earth with its precious cargo. The return capsule is currently scheduled to land in September 2023.

[*] Video on YouTube.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Touch-and-go: US spacecraft sampling asteroid for return:

After almost two years circling an ancient asteroid hundreds of millions of miles away, a NASA spacecraft this week will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble.

The drama unfolds Tuesday as the U.S. takes its first crack at collecting asteroid samples for return to Earth, a feat accomplished so far only by Japan.

Brimming with names inspired by Egyptian mythology, the Osiris-Rex mission is looking to bring back at least 2 ounces (60 grams) worth of asteroid Bennu, the biggest otherworldly haul from beyond the moon.

The van-sized spacecraft is aiming for the relatively flat middle of a tennis court-sized crater named Nightingale—a spot comparable to a few parking places here on Earth. Boulders as big as buildings loom over the targeted touchdown zone.

[...] Once it drops out of its half-mile-high (0.75 kilometer-high) orbit around Bennu, the spacecraft will take a deliberate four hours to make it all the way down, to just above the surface.

Then the action cranks up when Osiris-Rex's 11-foot (3.4-meter) arm reaches out and touches Bennu. Contact should last five to 10 seconds, just long enough to shoot out pressurized nitrogen gas and suck up the churned dirt and gravel. Programmed in advance, the spacecraft will operate autonomously during the unprecedented touch-and-go maneuver. With an 18-minute lag in radio communication each way, ground controllers for spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin near Denver can't intervene.

If the first attempt doesn't work, Osiris-Rex can try again. Any collected samples won't reach Earth until 2023.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touches asteroid:

NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft unfurled its robotic arm Tuesday, and in a first for the agency, briefly touched an asteroid to collect dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth in 2023.

This well-preserved, ancient asteroid, known as Bennu, is currently more than 200 million miles (321 million kilometers) from Earth. Bennu offers scientists a window into the early solar system as it was first taking shape billions of years ago and flinging ingredients that could have helped seed life on Earth. If Tuesday's sample collection event, known as "Touch-And-Go" (TAG), provided enough of a sample, mission teams will command the spacecraft to begin stowing the precious primordial cargo to begin its journey back to Earth in March 2021. Otherwise, they will prepare for another attempt in January.

"This amazing first for NASA demonstrates how an incredible team from across the country came together and persevered through incredible challenges to expand the boundaries of knowledge," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "Our industry, academic, and international partners have made it possible to hold a piece of the most ancient solar system in our hands."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:

First NASA Osiris-Rex images show incredible touchdown on asteroid Bennu:

NASA's asteroid-chaser, Osiris-Rex, completed a brief and historic landing on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu, over 200 million miles away on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the space agency revealed the first batch of images from the daring operation, revealing a delicate-yet-explosive moment between rock and robot.

Osiris-Rex traveled all that way to perform a short touch-and-go maneuver. Its major goal is to collect a sample from the asteroid's surface and transport it back to Earth for study.

On Tuesday, NASA TV reported the spacecraft's robotic sampling arm, named Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (Tagsam), did touch down on Bennu for about 15 seconds. During the brief contact, it performed what amounts to a cosmic pickpocketing maneuver.

[...] The spacecraft, which operates largely autonomously due to the 18-minute communications delay with mission control on Earth, fired a canister of gas through Tagsam that disrupted the surface of Bennu and should have enabled a sample to make its way up into the arm's collector head.

[...] Around 24 hours after the operation, NASA shared the first images of the touchdown operation captured by the spacecraft. The Tagsam moves into position and its sampling head makes contact with Bennu's surface before the explosive burst of nitrogen is fired. The operation kicks up a ton of debris, which flies around the acquisition arm. It's really something!

The sample collection took longer than it seemed to take in the video.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

OSIRIS-REx overflows with asteroid samples after bagging bounty from Bennu:

The sampling mechanism on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is stuffed with specimens captured from asteroid Bennu earlier this week — so full that some of the rocks are floating out into space.

Officials said Friday they will stow the samples inside the mission's Earth return capsule sooner than planned to minimize the loss of asteroid material.

"We had a successful sample collection attempt, almost too successful," said Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator from the University of Arizona. "Material is escaping, and we're expediting stow as a result of that."

NASA's $1 billion Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer aims to become the first U.S. spacecraft to complete a round-trip journey to an asteroid.

After a nearly two-year close-up survey of asteroid Bennu — a clump of rock measuring a third of a mile (500 meters) wide — the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descended to the airless world Tuesday for a celestial smash and grab. Its goal was to capture at least 2.1 ounces, or 60 grams, of pebbles, rock fragments and dust particles for return to Earth.

[...] Lauretta said Friday he is "highly confident" the sample collection attempt was successful, and that it collected "abundant mass, definitely evidence of hundreds of grams of material, and possibly more."

"My big concern now is that the particles are escaping because we're almost a victim of our own success here," Lauretta said Friday afternoon in a conference call with reporters.

Also at CNN.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Asteroid samples successfully sealed in capsule to return to Earth, NASA says:

An estimated two pounds or more of rock and soil collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft have been successfully sealed up in a protective re-entry capsule for return to Earth in 2023, project managers said Thursday.

While detailed hands-on analysis cannot begin until the samples are returned, scientists have already gained insights into the flaky nature of Bennu's soil, or regolith, by watching how it behaved when the rocks and soil were collected on October 20.

And that is already feeding into discussions about how to possibly one day divert a threatening asteroid from a collision with Earth.

[...] Because mission managers decided not to attempt weighing the collected samples, they do not know for sure how much material was captured. But based on the amount visible to OSIRIS-REx's cameras, Lauretta said he is confident at last two pounds or[sic] rock and soil were scooped up as the TAGSAM pressed into and blow[sic] Bennu's surface.

"There was very little resistance to the spacecraft's downward motion from the asteroid regolith," he said. "And so we were continuing to penetrate and burrow underneath the subsurface of the asteroid while the TAGSAM gas was being injected into the regolith.

"Current assessments are that we penetrated a minimum of 24 centimeters (9.4 inches) ... and possibly as deep as over 48 centimeters (18.9 inches) with TAGSAM gas firing and collecting and driving material into the collection chamber during that entire time. So we are highly confident ... the TAGSAM was was[sic] full to capacity."

Even though a few "tens of grams" of material managed to float free of the sample collector before it could be stowed, Lauretta said he believes "we still have hundreds of grams of material in the sample collector head, probably over a kilogram easily."

"But of course, we have to wait till 2023 to open up the TAGSAM and be sure."

Also at Engadget (Thanks Runaway1956!)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

NASA Releases Incredible Video of OSIRIS-REx Tagging Asteroid – Mysterious Dark Patches Puzzle Team:

These images were captured over an approximate three-hour period – the imaging sequence begins approximately one hour after the orbit departure maneuver and ends approximately two minutes after the back-away burn. In the middle of the sequence, the spacecraft slews, or rotates, so that NavCam 2 looks away from Bennu, toward space. OSIRIS-REx then performs a final slew to point the camera (and the sampling arm) toward the surface again.

As the spacecraft nears site Nightingale, the sampling arm's shadow comes into view in the lower part of the frame. Shortly after, the sampling head impacts site Nightingale (just outside the camera's field of view to the upper right) and fires a nitrogen gas bottle, which mobilizes a substantial amount of the sample site's material. Several seconds later, the spacecraft performs a back-away burn and the sampling arm's shadow is visible against the disturbed surface material.

The team continues to investigate what caused the extremely dark areas visible in the upper and middle parts of the frame. The upper area could be the edge of the depression created by the sampling arm, a strong shadow cast by material lofted from the surface, or some combination of the two. Similarly, the middle dark region that first appears in the lower left of the image could be a depression caused by one of the spacecraft thrusters as it fired, a shadow caused by lofted material, or a combination of both.

YouTube video.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Asteroid Bennu may be hollow according to a new study:

Researchers from the University of Colorado announced findings based on data captured by the spacecraft in the two years it was in orbit that shows the asteroid is likely hollow. Department of aerospace engineering sciences Daniel Scheeres said it appears the void in the asteroid center could hold a couple of football fields.

[...] The team believes that the asteroid's rotation could be responsible for the void inside. Over time, Bennu's rotation is gaining speed, and they think it's in the process of spinning itself into pieces. Since the core is low density, it's easier for the entire asteroid to fall apart as it spins. Now that measurements of the gravity field of the asteroid over, the team of scientists have wrapped up their work on the OSIRIS-REx mission.

The results of their work have contributed to the plan to analyze samples that will be returned to earth by the spacecraft. The current plan will see the samples analyzed to determine the cohesion between grains, a key physical property that impacts the mass distribution observed in the study.

Related:
Asteroid Bennu Might Be Hollow and Doomed to Crumble
Nasa Data Appears to Show That Giant Asteroid is Hollow
Experts Found Cavities in Asteroid Bennu; Is It Dying?

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