Yesterday, NASA ‘s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft passed through the asteroid Bennu for the last time, ending their two-and-a-half-year relationship with space rock. But OSIRIS-REx still persists in the vicinity of the asteroid, as if hesitating to embark on its return to Earth, about 200 million miles. This trip will begin in early May.
OSIRIS-REx transports precious samples of the asteroid and is expected to reach Earth on September 24, 2023.
“Leaving the surroundings of Bennu in May puts us at the ‘sweet spot’, when the exit maneuver will consume the least amount of fuel aboard the spacecraft,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx mission deputy project manager at NASA Center Goddard space flight in a statement. Moreau added that this is the largest propulsion maneuver the spacecraft has made since it first approached Bennu in October 2018.
When OSIRIS-REx came out of its family orbit, it captured images of the asteroid’s surface about 3 kilometers away. NASA researchers expect them to show how the surface of Bennu changed after collecting samples from OSIRIS-REx, which required the spacecraft to burst material from the rock’s surface.
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He “Touch and Go” sample collection (TAG) October 20, 2020 was a success, but the team added the overflight to its departure schedule to see how it may have altered the asteroid’s surface. The overflight lasted nearly six hours, covering more than one complete rotation of the asteroid.
“By studying the distribution of excavated material at the TAG site, we will learn more about the nature of surface and subterranean materials along with the asteroid’s mechanical properties,” said Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, at a NASA Press release.
We will be watching the latest images, which should be out in a week. The probe shares antennas for terrestrial communications with the Perseverance rover, which is also busy sending messages at the moment. So it may take a while.
It is about a month before OSIRIS-REx begins its return journey. Hopefully these latest asteroid images will be enough to keep us intrigued until September 2023.