Started the first mission of NASA, which will bring to the Earth more samples of the cosmic body since the launch of the Apollo.
NASA sent a probe OSIRIS-Rex to the asteroid Bennu, which has to examine the body and take it with surface samples and send them special capusule back to Earth in 2023. This will be the first such mission in the history of the space Agency. “It is wonderful to see the culmination of years of effort with this outstanding team,” said Mike Donnelly, project Manager, OSIRIS-REX at the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“We were able to make and deliver the probe OSIRIS-REX in time to the launch pad, which will soon have to do something that no other spacecraft NASA did, will bring the greatest number of samples asteroid”, – goes the statement of the press service of NASA. Launched from Cape Canaveral the probe, OSIRIS-REX will fly to Bennu, which is the size of a small mountain, in 2018 and will begin work on compiling Carty and study of the asteroid to prepare for sample collection.
In July 2020, the spacecraft will perform a maneuver during which his arm will extend to collect samples. The probe should collect at least 60 grams of finely ground rock and dust. OSIRIS-REX will return samples to Earth in September 2023. Later they will be sent to the space center Johnson NASA in Houston for examination.
NASA called the most potentially dangerous asteroid for the Earth object. According to scientists from the University of Vlagalischa, the probability of falling of an asteroid on the Earth is equal to 1/4000, and date fall within the 2169 and 2199. Earlier it was reported that scientists from NASA believe in the presence of organic material on the asteroid Bennu.
