How NASA's Audacious Mission To Sample An Asteroid Almost Ended In Bizarre Disaster

slashgear ^ | JULY 9, 2022 3:04 PM EDT | NADEEM SARWAR/

[BenLurkin]

NASA has revealed that while collecting samples from the asteroid Bennu in October of 2020, the spacecraft's sampler arm sank over a foot in the loosely packed surface layer, as if there was no resistance. The spacecraft narrowly avoided being swallowed by firing up its thrusters and moving away from the surface.

University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences, Dante Lauretta, revealed that the "particles making up Bennu's exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that they act more like a fluid than a solid." Experts behind the mission likened the experience to jumping into a pool of hollow plastic balls.

When OSIRIS-REx — short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, first arrived at its destination, the Bennu asteroid's surface looked more like rough terrain littered with boulders and pebbles of various sizes instead of a smooth, beach-like surface that was initially expected.

[Paladin2]

Good, real time, catch....

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4076936/posts?page=21#21

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/acm2008/pdf/8012.pdf

[Darksheare]

Not my fault

[SunkenCiv]

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the rest of the Bennu keywords, sorted, duplicates out:

• Surprise -- Again! NASA Spacecraft Reveals Asteroid Bennu Is Not What It Seemed [07/08/2022]
• This Giant, Hazardous Asteroid Almost Certainly Won't Hit Us, Probably, NASA Says [Bennu] [08/12/2021]
• NASA Refines Threat Posed by Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Bennu [08/11/2021]
• NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collects significant amount of asteroid [10/24/2020]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day - Tagging Bennu [10/22/2020]
• Here It Is: The Spectacular Footage of NASA Touching Down on an Asteroid [10/22/2020]
• NASA mission successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu [10/20/2020]
• A NASA Spacecraft Is About to Land on an Asteroid And Grab a Sample. [10/20/2020]
• WATCH: OSIRIS-REx Sample Collection Activities [10/20/2020]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day - Descending Toward Asteroid Bennu [10/12/2020]
• Asteroid Bennu Caries Organic Materials Consistent With Ingredients For Life [10/09/2020]
• OSIRIS-REx readies for sample collection, observes strange activity at asteroid Bennu [10/01/2020]
• NASA spacecraft swoops down low over asteroid Bennu to eye sampling site [06/09/2020]
• See every square foot of asteroid Bennu, Earth's little frenemy [04/07/2020]
• NASA warns of an asteroid approaching Earth at 63,000 mph with a chance of impact [or not] [12/27/2019]
• Eruptions on Asteroid Bennu Hint at Causes of Space Rock Explosions [12/05/2019]
• NASA Prepares to Snatch Samples of 'Apocalypse Asteroid' Bennu [08/14/2019]
• Asteroid Bennu keeps spinning faster and scientists aren't sure why [03/14/2019]
• No, You Won't See an 'Apocalypse Asteroid' in the Sky on Valentine's Day [02/11/2019]
• OSIRIS-REx Captures Sharper Images of Asteroid Bennu [01/31/2019]
• Watch NASA's OSIRIS-REx Rendezvous With an Asteroid: The spacecraft arrives at the tiniest [tr] [12/03/2018]
• Live coverage of spacecraft arrival at asteroid December 3 [12/02/2018]
• NASA Spacecraft Begins Final Approach to Big Asteroid Bennu [08/21/2018]
• Asteroid Bennu: Target of Sample Return Mission [03/13/2018]
• NASA asteroid probe may find clues to origins of life on Earth (Bennu, time capsule of our origins) [09/08/2016]
• NASA plans to launch study of asteroid that could destroy Earth (Bennu in 2135 scenario) [07/31/2016]

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Tom-Van-Flandern-2015772046

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I have read that the first unmanned landing on either the Moon or Mars, the first thing the probe did was take a photo of it’s footprint, just in case it sank into the sand.

[Waverunner]

Just beware of the Green Viscous fluid on the rocks.


AND FOR GODS SAKE, DON'T BRING IT ABOARD THE SPACE STATION

[webheart]

I guess nobody would read it if it didn’t have bizarre in the title.

[SuperLuminal]

Only a maggoty moron would use the term “disaster” for an unexpected and marvelous scientific result...

This is, actually, ranks among the major new scientific discoveries in astrophysics for the past decade...

Theorists are having perpetual wet dreams since these findings were discovered...

[Scaramouch]

BAZINGA!

[TimSkalaBim]

What is that from? looks interesting.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

THE GREEN SLIME. Got it on DVD!

[Robert A Cook PE]

An early 60s science fiction story discusses the problems when a lunar surface tractor with passengers on boards gets “submerged” in a dust-filled loose sea of particles.

Seriously though, why would anybody anticipate “smooth, round, loose spheres” as an accumulated mass when gravity is barely enough to hold the clump together? There is no friction to cause either motion nor wear to break off the tiny bits and irregularities to smooth a surface! And certainly not enough pressure to melt rock.

[Waverunner]

Ruy got it right, The Green Slime... And you’ll love the crazy 60’s theme music. A Japanese production crew ( ex Toho special effects crew), what looks like an Italian movie feel, and just a low budget American produced 60’s space monster movie. And like all great movies, it’s a love story. Always point out to your date to see any movie that it’s really a love story.

[Svartalfiar]

Only a maggoty moron would use the term “disaster” for an unexpected and marvelous scientific result...

Um, if the comet was built differently than expected, and the probe was destroyed, that would certainly qualify as a disaster for the mission. Sure, lots of cool sciencey info from the result, but that wouldn't make it not a disaster...