Yesterday, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu for the last time ending his two-and-a-half-year relationship with the space rock. But OSIRIS-REx still remains in the vicinity of the asteroid, as if reluctant to embark on its approximately 200 million-mile return to Earth. The journey begins in early May.
OSIRIS-REx carries precious samples of the asteroid and must return to Earth on September 24, 2023.
“When we leave the Bennu area in May, we’re in the ‘sweet spot’ when the departure maneuver will consume the least amount of fuel on board the spacecraft,” said Michael Moreau, deputy project manager for OSIRIS-REx. mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in a statement. Moreau added that this is the largest propulsion maneuver the spacecraft has been engaged in since first approaching Bennu in October 2018.
When OSIRIS-REx leaves its known orbit, it takes the image of the asteroid at a distance of about 3 km. NASA researchers hope it will show how Bennu’s surface changed to OSIRIS-REx’s sample collection, which required the spacecraft’s explosive material from the rock surface.
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The Sample Collection “Touch and Go” (TAG) on October 20, 2020 was a success, but the team added the flyby to their departure schedule to see how they changed the asteroid surface. The flight lasted almost six hours and covered more than a full rotation of the asteroid.
“By examining the distribution of the excavated material at the TAG site, we will learn more about the nature of the surface and subterranean materials, as well as the mechanical properties of the asteroid,” said Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator at NASA Press release.
We will stay up to date on the latest images that will appear in about a week. The spacecraft shares the antennas for Earthbound communiques with the Perseverance Rover, which is currently also sending messages back. So it may take a while.
It is still about a month before OSIRIS-REx begins its return journey. Hopefully the last asteroid images will be enough to keep us interested until September 2023.