OSIRIS-REx sample collection!

Man 47 years ago we sent Pioneer 11 out to study the asteroid belt.

Now we’re landing on them??

47 comes to mind for another reason.. total wasted years Biden has been in politics

It's Nasa so it will probably crash and burn...

Do you have to ruin everything.

If they find rare earth elements you can be sure that private ventures will finance a mining operation.

would be a shame if an extremophile came back with it
SPACE FUNGI
VIRII

Yeah I do!

Many on here claim that NASA is a fraud and steals our tax dollars!

So we haven’t landed on the moon in decades... this is proof we’re not done in space!

companies will be mining space before they announce it to the public

Wikipedia: 101955 Bennu (provisional designation 1999 RQ36)[9] is a carbonaceous asteroid in the Apollo group discovered by the LINEAR Project on 11 September 1999. It is a potentially hazardous object that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table with the second-highest cumulative rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale.[10] It has a cumulative 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2199.[11][12] It is named after the Bennu, the ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth.
101955 Bennu has a mean diameter of 490 m (1,610 ft; 0.30 mi) and has been observed extensively with the Arecibo Observatory planetary radar and the Goldstone Deep Space Network.[7][13][14]

490 meters diameter. At first I thought that was 490 miles. We are safe for now unless something affects it orbit.

I was told by somebody..or asked

'how many people are on the fake earth?'

i said 'where is the fake earth'

'by jupiter'

It was a child haha

very funny response though!

No pics till tomorrow.

Did we make it?

They're still descending towards the touchdown point.

They're firing thrusters now to start a steep drop to the surface.

Last Edited by Astromut on 10/20/2020 05:51 PM

Ok just throwing this out there..

The way the US and the world shut down over covid just proves they can do it again for any amount of reasons...

This mission is a pivotal moment for nasa. It will prove we are able to interact with objects in space.

The same science can be used to land and place explosives to destroy or thrusters to change flight path of asteroids.

We know how to lockdown for the most part. They’ve seen what lockdowns do to moral of the nation. Especially when the economy takes a turn.

Pre programming us for the future? In the event of an asteroid threat, real or fake be sure there are plans in place!

Sorry Astro don’t mean to take away from your thread..

So anyone else notice that when they did the opening video as it was showing the video or whatever of the asteroid, when it was fading out and going to the woman who was speaking they overlayed the asteroid with the coronavirus picture. No joke. I went back trying to screen shot and they already edited it out or something. It was in your first video/live feed I guess it is. Plus these people look ridiculous with them make shift masks. Just saying.

Damn the livestream got buggered.

How much of a sample are they going to bring back?

I think they were looking for a minimum of 60 grams.

Sampling in progress, they've touched the asteroid

Still an amazing feat

Sampling complete, back away burn has executed, the spacecraft is returning to orbit around the asteroid.

This is really cool. But, then.. There is that thing where we are going to grab a sample from a rock that's been floating around in space for billions of years, through God knows what, and then bring that sample back to earth. What could go wrong?

If only NASA actually tried listening to what God says.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” - Nikolai Tesla

"If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will deploy an 11-foot-long (3-metre-long) robotic arm called TAGSAM – Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism – and spend about 10 seconds collecting at least two ounces (50 grams) of loose rubble from the asteroid. The spacecraft, monitored remotely by a team of scientists and engineers, will then stow away the sample and begin its return to Earth, scheduled for 2023."

[link to www.sciencealert.com (secure)]