ASTEROID GRABBING SPACECRAFT RETURNS WITH ROCK

NASA’s OSIRIS-Rcx mission had three extraordinary goals when it launched in September 201T: land on an asteroid, collect samples and return them to carth. By the end of October 2020, the first two had been successfully completed.

The mission’s target was the asteroid Bennu, a lump of rock approximately 490m across that’s shaped a bit like a spinning top. Though it’s classed as a near-carth asteroid, Bennu is currently over 300 million kilometres away from us and OSIRIS-Rcx is not expected to arrive back here until September 2023.

OSIRIS-Rcx’s landing on Bennu went without a hitch, but NASA ran into a problem with the sample collection. A rock jammed open the door of the container and the sample started to leak out. Fortunately, the mission team managed to seal the container and leave the asteroid with at least 400g of material – well over the 60g they’d expected to return with.