ORISIS – REx

Subject: Science & tech

Context : Recently, the NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will depart asteroid Bennu, and start its two-year long journey back to Earth.

Concept :

OSIRIS-Rex Mission

It is NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx).
In October 2020, the spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it collected samples of dust and pebbles.
It is NASA’s first mission meant to return a sample from the ancient asteroid.
The mission is essentially a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60 grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth.
As per NASA, the mission promises to bring the largest amount of extraterrestrial material back to our planet since the Apollo era.
The mission was launched in 2016, it reached its target in 2018 and since then, the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters.
The spacecraft contains five instruments meant to explore Bennu including cameras, a spectrometer and a laser altimeter.

About Asteroid Bennu

The Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets.
Bennu is an asteroid about as tall as the Empire State Building, located about 200 million miles away from the Earth.
The asteroid was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
It is believed to have been born in the Main Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The asteroid is coming closer to Earth because of gravitational tugs from other celestial objects and the slight push asteroids get when they release absorbed sunlight.