NASA has said its spacecraft on first asteroid sample return mission will pass about 16,000 km above the Earth on September 22.Using the Earth as a slingshot, the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) will receive an assist to complete its journey to the asteroid Bennu.<\/p>\n
OSIRIS-REx is undertaking a challenging mission to visit the near-Earth asteroid, survey the surface, collect samples and deliver them safely back to the Earth.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft is halfway through its two-year outbound journey, and now OSIRIS-REx needs an extra boost to successfully rendezvous with Bennu.<\/p>\n
Bennu\u2019s orbit around the Sun is tilted six degrees in comparison to the Earth\u2019s. The gravity assist will change OSIRIS-REx\u2019s trajectory to put the spacecraft on a course to match the asteroid\u2019s path and speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Earth Gravity Assist is a clever way to move the spacecraft onto Bennu\u2019s orbital plane using Earth\u2019s own gravity instead of expending fuel,\u201d said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.<\/p>\n
OSIRIS-REx will approach the Earth at a speed of about 19,000 mph (30,400 kmph), NASA said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft will fly over Australia before reaching its closest point to the Earth over Antarctica, just south of Cape Horn, Chile.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor about an hour, NASA will be out of contact with the spacecraft as it passes over Antarctica,\u201d said Mike Moreau, Flight Dynamics System Lead, OSIRIS-REx Project at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.<\/p>\n
NASA will regain communication with OSIRIS-REx roughly 50 minutes after closest approach.<\/p>\n
During the gravity assist, OSIRIS-REx will pass through a region of space that is inhabited by Earth-orbiting satellites, and NASA said it has taken precautions to ensure the safety of the spacecraft as it flies through this area.<\/p>\n
The team has already made multiple adjustments to the spacecraft\u2019s path since launch on September 8, 2016.<\/p>\n
In late June of 2018, the team will perform another deep space maneuver to further target the rendezvous with Bennu.<\/p>\n
Then beginning in October 2018, a series of asteroid approach maneuvers will be executed to slow the spacecraft with respect to the asteroid.<\/p>\n
Once OSIRIS-REx rendezvouses with Bennu in late 2018, the spacecraft will begin surveying the surface, NASA said.<\/p>\n
IANS<\/strong><\/p>\n Alamy Image<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA has said its spacecraft on first asteroid sample return mission will pass about 16,000 km above the Earth on September 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4757,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions\/4757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}