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NASA Drops Spacecraft Into Orbit Around Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Bennu (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the historic-NASA-news dept.

NASA's asteroid-chasing Osiris-Rex spacecraft has been placed in an orbit around Bennu, an asteroid that drifts through the solar system's asteroid belt between Earth and Mars. "By inserting itself into orbit around Bennu, Osiris-Rex will survey the asteroid from a distance of only about 1 mile (1.75 kilometers) from its center," reports CNET. "Bennu's small size creates an incredibly tiny gravitational force, so maintaining that orbit will require lots of little adjustments, made by NASA and its collaborating organizations." From the report: "The gravity of Bennu is so small, forces like solar radiation and thermal pressure from Bennu's surface become much more relevant and can push the spacecraft around in its orbit much more than if it were orbiting around Earth or Mars, where gravity is by far the most dominant force," said Dan Wibben, maneuver and trajectory design lead. NASA also released a GIF of the various surveys Osiris-Rex carried out after arriving at Bennu in early December The series of images, captured between Nov. 30 and Dec. 31, helped the team more accurately determine Bennu's mass, which ensured that the orbital insertion would proceed smoothly.

The orbital period, lasting until mid-February, is expected to provide additional details about Bennu's gravity, orientation and spin, along with a better understanding of its mass. All those observations should lead to completing one of the chief objectives for Osiris-Rex: retrieve a sample from Bennu's surface and fly it back to Earth. In 2020, the spacecraft will extend a specially designed arm, called Tagsam, for a brief high-five with the asteroid. The arm will blow nitrogen gas onto the surface of Bennu, kicking up handfuls of dirt, which the spacecraft will fly back to Earth in 2023.

50 comments

  1. Hey China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Enjoy the moon

    1. Re: Hey China by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, I'm sure boulat will drop by any minute to chinsplain to us why this is insignificant in the face of the recent Chinese surpassing of the US.

    2. Re: Hey China by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The race is on! Do you think he'll beat AmiMoJo?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re: Hey China by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Depends whether one of the scientists is wearing a tacky shirt or not.

  2. Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Bennu's small size"
    which the poster can't be bothered to tell us

    EDITORS, EDIT !

    1. Re: Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It has not been measured perfectly. Indirectly they measured mass so as to determine what the proper orbits could be, but as far as other measurements, the asteroid is not spherical and for different purposes you might measure surface area, volume, equatorial distance in different directions, etc. Amusingly, Bennu was originally charted back when the EU was switching from imperial units to metric and there are some measurements for which NASA is unsure of the units. I would guess NASA will try to standardize their data set regarding the asteroid as a first step.

    2. Re: Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you believe that if you cannot state something perfectly, it should not be stated ?!

      How old are you ?

    3. Re: Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In years or days?

    4. Re: Journalism 101 by vrt3 · · Score: 1

      Amusingly, Bennu was originally charted back when the EU was switching from imperial units to metric

      Huh? Europe (except the UK) has been using metric units for a long time, certainly long before the EU even existed, and long before Bennu was discovered in 1999.

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    5. Re: Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      European space agency used to use imperial because was NASA was much more dominant back then - it even caused crashes

    6. Re:Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, it's bigger than a breadbox. Any other questions?

      CAP === 'purified'

    7. Re: Journalism 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also leading with "potentially hazardous" in the headline and then not mentioning it at all in the summary.

    8. Re: Journalism 101 by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Most of Europe never used any imperial system/unit anyway. Unless you want to call "having a foot or a mile" imperial. Every foot, mile, every "elbow" every "thumb" as in inch, every pound or ounce had its own size, and no, the correlation between one and the other was not based on 12 or 16, but was most of the time random. While weights usually stayed constant over time, that means a pound was a pound was a pound, distances did not. When the old "king" died, the new one changed feet and thumb and elbow according to his own body size. Miles were arbitrary set, sometimes rulers thought the longer the better (going far away from the roman 1000 paces metric - a pace are two steps, for you americans you mix up paces with steps). It was a kind of prestige object, because they converted how many miles a soldier could work in an hour (about 3) back and force into how fast their fastest elite troops were. So if they managed to do 1800 paces in one hour the mile would be as long as that ... often that number was simply invented. Other tricks were, to simply use two hours of walking instead of one, so became the "Baadische Meile" the longest mile in german history (Mile of the Margraviate of Baaden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Albeit in this case they did not cheat, besides using 2h as base and interestingly the Margrave Carl Friedrich himself with his entourage walked in 2h the distance of 8.88889 km

      Germany probably topped it by having about 50 different definitions for everything.

      Anyway, the slow unification and the introduction of railways etc. forced them to unify the systems, it is a bit complicate to plan a railway trip from Warschau to Madrid if you have to go through dozens of borders where each principal has defined his one system of length and his own local time zone.

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    9. Re:Journalism 101 by quenda · · Score: 0

      "Bennu's small size"

      But Chinese frequently state that small size does not matter.

    10. Re: Journalism 101 by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ah, the coming of the railroad. The railroads are also responsible for the time zones.

      "American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s. Each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a serious problem for people traveling by train (sometimes hundreds of miles in a day), according to the Library of Congress. Every city in the United States used a different time standard, so there were more than 300 local sun-times to choose from. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, but this was only a partial solution to the problem.

      Operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced on November 18, 1883."

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    11. Re: Journalism 101 by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      Hahaha,
      A little buzzed and apparently failed to read the final sentence in it's entirety as upon re-reading your comment I see you made note of that.
      Fuck it, it's the weekend, party on....

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    12. Re:Journalism 101 by bev_tech_rob · · Score: 2

      According to Gizmodo, it is 1600 ft. in diameter.. https://gizmodo.com/bennu-is-n...

      --
      You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
    13. Re: Journalism 101 by Solandri · · Score: 2

      When the old "king" died, the new one changed feet and thumb and elbow according to his own body size.

      We look upon that with horror today, but it just didn't matter back then because they didn't have standardized measuring tools. The machines necessary to mass produce standardized measuring tools didn't come about until the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. So the king could mess with the units all he wanted. The people would just ignore it and build using whatever measuring tools they had on hand. As long as a "foot" remained consistent for a single building project, it worked out.

      Weights remained more consistent because they were used for measuring the value of things (sacks of wheat, grains of gold, etc). Merchants carried standardized weights to use in trades (though I'm sure many of them cheated).

      The most interesting aspect of Imperial measurements is how liquid volume was measured. In the Imperial system they're based on powers of 2. 4 pecks in a bushel, 2 gallons in a peck, 4 quarts in a gallon, 2 pints in a quart, etc. Ask yourself, how do you split a liquid into equal parts if you don't have standardizes measuring containers? You put two containers on a balance scale, and pour liquid into both sides until they're balanced. Then you know you've divided the original volume into equal halves.

    14. Re:Journalism 101 by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      My girlfriend also said that a small dick is no problem.

      OK... well... still... I'd prefer she had none at all.

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  3. Hopefully by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

    They'll be able to use the microgravity "pull" exerted by the spacecraft to gradually steer the object clear of Earth

    Strat

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    1. Re:Hopefully by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Failing that a bunch of herpin' derpin' oilmen will destroy it - but only after them there fancy-pants book-learned so-called "scientists" totally fail it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re: Hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Orbits are calculated with exactly two terms: a term that uses only the spacecrafts angular momentum based in zero gravity and the other term has gravity as the highest order variable

    3. Re:Hopefully by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      If not, they could try to shoot depleted uranium slugs at it via a giant railgun.

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    4. Re:Hopefully by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      It would be kind of funny if the tiny effect of the nearby probe would create a course correction that resulted in a hit rather than a near miss near the end of the 22nd century. OK, maybe "funny" is not quite the right word...

  4. Sunday best by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    I thought the asteroid belt was between Mars and Jupiter?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Sunday best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mira sura you inners no understand nada.

    2. Re: Sunday best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When does the sun rise on Jupiter?

    3. Re:Sunday best by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative

      A combination of poor and inaccurate phrasing from TFA. The densest part of belt does indeed lie between Mars and Jupiter but, depending what objects you decide qualify as being part of the asteroid belt, outlier asteroids and those with highly eliptical orbits can be found all the way inside the orbit of Mercury to beyond Saturn. There are also three significant asteroid groupings that lie on the orbit of Jupiter (known as the Greeks, Trojans, and Hildas). Bennu's orbit also happens to just cross that of Earth - it has to really, or there wouldn't be an impact risk - but the majority of it does indeed lie between Earth and Mars, although it's always much closer to Earth's orbit than that of Mars.

      --
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    4. Re: Sunday best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most asteroids of interest to NASA can be found near Saturn, Venus, along with Jupiter, Mars, and Earth. And terraforming the sun is also of interest

  5. NASA not shutdown? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

    I thought that the US government was shutdown right now. Why is NASA still working?

    Although, I could imagine that the folks working on this project would continue, even if they didn't get paid for it.

    --
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    1. Re: NASA not shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you aware that NASA is independent from the government in that they are multinational and can have projects funded by other nations?

    2. Re:NASA not shutdown? by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 2

      It is and the AC doesn't know what he's talking about.

      From Space.com

      " Most NASA personnel will be furloughed until such an agreement is reached, agency officials explained recently in a shutdown FAQ. "Most" is something of an understatement, in fact; about 95 percent of NASA employees won't be able to go to work.

      But don't panic: There are "excepted" employees, such as the folks responsible for keeping NASA people and property safe. And "property" includes currently operational spacecraft, as well as the data they collect.

      So, operations aboard the International Space Station will continue pretty much as before, and NASA won't have to cancel important upcoming spaceflight events such as the OSIRIS-REx probe's Dec. 31 orbital insertion around the asteroid Bennu, or the New Horizons spacecraft's Jan. 1 flyby of the distant object Ultima Thule.

      "However, if a satellite mission has not yet been launched, unfunded work will generally be suspended on that project," NASA chief financial officer Jeff DeWit wrote earlier this week in a memo to James Hertz, Program Associate Director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. "

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      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    3. Re: NASA not shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is a summary and there are many operations NASA may or may not have in flight at any given time

    4. Re: NASA not shutdown? by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      If it's in flight it's an active mission, if not it's scrubbed until the government is re-opened. Most NASA employees are furloughed and not allowed to work. Very simple really. NASA is funded by the government and have not had their funding approved. Space Center tours, not yet launched missions and missions in the planning stages are on hold.

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    5. Re: NASA not shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't know that NASA was multinational!!! Amazing what you learn on Slashdot.

    6. Re: NASA not shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Itâ(TM)s "multinational" in a sense that nasa employs tons of stupid shitty smelly parasites hindu-chimps, who travel back to shitty hindustan and steal secrets.

    7. Re: NASA not shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA is not a multi-national agency. It only collaborates with other international space agencies. Sadly that collaboration means NASA does the heavy lifting while others follow behind in their wake. The old USSR was ahead in the space race very early on but was surpassed by the US years ago and nobody has come close to challenging NASA's dominance. And China's space exploration efforts only progress after they have had the chance to absorb and copy NASA's efforts. About the only thing China is doing these days is building the necessary AI and survelliance infrastructure needed to monitor and control their large population while hiding the fact from the rest of the world.

  6. Editors suck.... WTF Link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is this shit.... "released a GIF" This shit is not from NASA!
    "https://c-3sux78kvnkay76x24itkz8x2eihyoyzgzoix2eius.g00.cnet.com/g00/3_c-3ccc.itkz.ius_/c-3SUXKVNKAY76x24nzzvyx3ax2fx2fitkz8.ihyoyzgzoi.iusx2fosmx2frlO2X_aEkT4ia_nx78bTQ7QmiWjNKx3dx2f536d6x2florzkx78yx3amolb()x2f8675x2f67x2f60x2f624961j6-l334-0ljh-4hl8-i2h20k797406x2fskjoas-rgx78mk-206d046.molx3fo76i.sgx78qx3dskjog_$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$"

    To a broken GIF of all formats?

  7. old by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Week old news

  8. Orbital Forces by irchans · · Score: 1

    The acceleration experienced by Osiris-Rex while in orbit = G m / r_oribit^2
    = (6*10^-11)*(6*10^10)/(1700^2) = 1*10^-6 m/sec^2

    The force exerted on by Bennu on Osiris-Rex (assuming mass of 880 kg) while in orbit = G m_B m_OR / r_orbit^2
    = 880*(6*10^-11)*(6*10^10)/(1700^2) = 0.001 Newtons.

    Tidal force of sun on Osiris-Rex = G m_OR m_Sun r_orbit / (1 AU)^3 = 6*10^-11*880*2*10^30*1700/(150*10^9)^3
    = 50 nano-Newtons.

    Light pressure from sun = A_OR S_Sun/c = A_OR*P = 6*4.5^10^-6 = 30 micro-Newtons.

    Thermal Radiation Pressure from Bennu = S_B A / c
    = alpha_B S_Sun * pi r_B^2 / (4 pi r_orbit^2) A /c = alpha_B S_Sun *r_B^2 / (4 r_orbit^2) A/c
    = 0.05*1300*262^2/(4*1700^2)*6/(3*10^8) = 7 nano-Newtons.

    It's been like 10 years since I audited my only two astronomy courses, so regard the numbers above with skepticism.

    1. Re:Orbital Forces by irchans · · Score: 1

      I think the thermal pressure calculation should not include albedo.

      Thermal Radiation Pressure from Bennu = S_B A / c
      = S_Sun * pi r_B^2 / (4 pi r_orbit^2) A /c = S_Sun *r_B^2 / (4 r_orbit^2) A/c
      = 1300*262^2/(4*1700^2)*6/(3*10^8) = 150 nano-Newtons.

    2. Re:Orbital Forces by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just by the way, the correct typesetting is:

      123 newtons
      123 millinewtons
      123 micronewtons
      123 nanonewtons

      When written in full, no hyphen or capital N is used. (Officially, it should also be singular, e.g. “a force of 123 newton was observed”, but that is a bit formal).

      When abbreviated, a capital letter is used:

      123 N
      123 mN
      123 N
      123 nN

      Newton is the person
      newton is the unit
      N is the unit symbol

      All units named after a person use the same format, e.g. kelvin K, joule J, watt W, pascal Pa.

  9. When is NASA going to drop some hydrogen by mark_reh · · Score: 1

    bombs into volcanoes?

  10. Time to re-read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The Andromeda Strain"? (or if in a rush, the movie, deargodnot the series.)

  11. Link to GIF at NASA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Full rotation: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/bennushapemodel.gif

    1. Re:Link to GIF at NASA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fully hotified link:

      https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/bennushapemodel.gif

  12. You just decribed a dozen imperial systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, literally, "When the old 'king' died." Those are fucking imperial units, just not as useful as the British system.

  13. noway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to simply use two hours of walking instead of one, so became the "Baadische Meile" the longest mile in german history (Mile of the Margraviate or visit https://witgoed-reparatie.net for more info.

  14. Potentially hazardous to whom? by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

    What a pathetic click bait title. Bennu is only hazardous to the inanimate object circling it.

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