Starship Asterisk*

Places for OSIRIS-REx to Touch Asteroid Bennu

Explanation: Where is the best place to collect a surface sample from asteroid Bennu? Launched in 2016, NASA sent the robotic Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) to investigate the 500-meter-across asteroid 101955 Bennu. After mapping the near-Earth asteroid's dark surface, OSIRIS-REx will next touch Bennu's surface in 2020 August to collect a surface sample. The featured 23-second time-lapse video shows four candidate locations for the touch, from which NASA chose just one earlier this month. NASA chose the Nightingale near Bennu's northern hemisphere as the primary touch-down spot because of its relative flatness, lack of boulders, and apparent abundance of fine-grained sand. Location Osprey is the backup. NASA plans to return soil samples for Bennu to Earth in 2023 for a detailed analysis.

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Gonna hit or gonna miss! Over a 100 years for solutions! this is a pretty good sized chunk of rock!

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:09 pm Gonna hit or gonna miss! Over a 100 years for solutions! :shock: this is a pretty good sized chunk of rock!

More like a good sized pile of rocks.

Space dust..pretty cool... hoping I'm still around in 2034 when the mission Dragonfly just might discover evidence of life on Titan.Any news about a definite Enceladus mission? In 2034 I'll be 79....still holding onto hope!!!

One factor in the site named Nightingale's favor is its high latitude, I would think. Due to it's micro gravity and fast rotation, sites closer to Bennu's equator might be more unstable.

Bruce

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 4:12 pm
One factor in the site named Nightingale's favor is its high latitude, I would think. Due to it's micro gravity and fast rotation, sites closer to Bennu's equator might be more unstable.

• And we already know how to land a spacecraft
  on a spinning body from the axial direction
  
  With surface gravity just 6 micro-g: landslides, etc.,
  will occur in slo-mo (400 times slower than normal).

CosmoQuest Citizen Scientists Help Map Asteroid Bennu
Planetary Science Institute | CosmoQuest | 2019 Dec 23

viewtopic.php?p=297950#p297950

I wish it tons of success...

:---[===] *

Boomer12k wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:18 pm I wish it tons of success...

Don't push it. 100 grams will be a huge success.

Editorial note: I added a link to https://www.psi.edu/news/bennusite under the word "mapping" on the main NASA APOD. The link describes the role of citizen scientists in mapping the surface of Bennu. - RJN

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 3:06 pm

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:09 pm Gonna hit or gonna miss! Over a 100 years for solutions! this is a pretty good sized chunk of rock!

More like a good sized pile of rocks.

<nod> It's especially obvious in the video if you full-screen it — there are a few big and a few medium sized chunks sticking out, but most of the surface appears to be gravel. Although, granted, it is big gravel; comparing it to the 500m-size of the whole asteroid, they're maybe big car-sized and smaller.

TheOtherBruce wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2019 3:26 am
<nod>

We have an app for that:

Unless you mean you are falling asleep(...we only have a nap for that).

So this is not supposed to be a landing, but just a brief touch, grab up a sample and go event.

How large is the sample grabber? What size of rocks is it capable of collecting?

Also, is there an artist's visualization video of what this sample collection might look like available?

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:36 pm So this is not supposed to be a landing, but just a brief touch, grab up a sample and go event.

How large is the sample grabber? What size of rocks is it capable of collecting?

Also, is there an artist's visualization video of what this sample collection might look like available?

The minimum collection goal is 60 g, but the canister can hold up to about 2 kg. Nothing larger than 2 cm. There is also some stainless steel velcro on the touch pads, which is expected to pick up dust and sand-sized particles.