NASA is going to land on the asteroid pen and capture a part: How to watch live

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft On Tuesday a large asteroid will briefly touch, swipe some rocks and dust off its surface and return it to Earth for exploration. Event refers to a Primarily for NASA And the potential boon for our understanding of science, space exploration and the solar system. Lockheed Martin Space will stream bold work live, and we have everything you need to know about how this work will unfold and how it will look.

Touch and go, or TAG, asteroid sample collection 101955 Pennu Tuesday, October 20, at 3:12 p.m. The NASA DAG maneuver will be broadcast live on NASA TV Agency’s website Starts Tuesday at 2 p.m. The livestream link can be found below.

When did the work begin?

Osiris-Rex As a concept At least since 2004, a team of astronomers first proposed the idea to NASA. After more than a decade of development, the spacecraft Launched September 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, On top of the Atlas V rocket of the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The spacecraft traveled to Penn for the next 26 months, officially arriving on December 3, 2018.

Since then, the mission team has been orbiting the diamond-shaped space rock for nearly two years, surveying and mapping its surface to select the best sample location. In recent months, rehearsals have begun ahead of the upcoming sample collection effort, and the team says it is now ready to play TAG with Pennu.

Why Pennu?

Pennu is also known as the “Ruined Heap” asteroid, which formed in deep cosmic times when gravity slowly forced the remnants of an ancient collision together. The result is a one-third of a mile (500 meters) in diameter and a body-like surface surrounded by large boulders and boulders.

Pennu is considered a window into the past of the solar system: a beautiful, carbon-rich body that carries the building blocks of both planets and life. Some of these resources, such as water and metals, are worth mining for future use on Earth or in space research.

Asteroid has another feature that is particularly interesting to scientists and humans in general – it has the potential to affect the Earth in the distant future. Ann List of NASA attack risks, Pennu is in 2nd place. Current data show dozens of potential impacts of the last quarter of the 22nd century, although everyone has only a minute chance of actually passing.

How does TAG work?

For anyone who has ever been involved with robots or entered a robotics competition, the Osiris-Rex mission may seem like the ultimate culmination of a young robotist’s dream. The touch-and-go modeling process is a complex, high-stakes task that has been creating a critical climate moment for many years. If it succeeds, it will play a role in history and our future in space.

The basic plan is for Osiris-Rex to touch the rock with a pen Landing site known as Nightingale. The van-sized spacecraft should negotiate building-sized boulders around the landing area, with the relatively clear space as large as a few parking spaces. However, there will only be one robot model arm to actually set up on the surface of Osiris-Rex. One of the three compressed nitrogen bottles will stir up a sample of dust and small rocks, which will then be caught on the collector’s head by hand to keep them safe and return to Earth.

It takes about four hours to descend to the surface of the pen, about the time it takes for the asteroid to create a complete revolution. After this slow approach, the actual TAG sample collection process will last significantly less than 16 seconds.

Preparing for TAG did not go exactly as planned. Mission organizers initially believed that there would be numerous landing sites on the surface of the pen, primarily covered with fine materials comparable to sand or gravel. The surface of the pen is very rough without actual reception landing spots.

After re-evaluating the work over the past two years, the team decided to “thread the needle” through the boulder-filled landscape and one or two insulation sample sites in Nightingale. It is still possible to prove that the surface is too rocky to get a good sample. If this changes, the team may choose to try again on another site. Osiris-Rex has three nitrogen vials to shoot and decompose on the surface, meaning the team gets up to three attempts to capture a sample.

What then?

As soon as it collects its sample, Osiris-Rex shoots its impulses to move away from the pen. The spacecraft will continue to hover over Penn in late 2020, before finally making the maneuver to depart next year and begin a two-year journey back to Earth.

On September 24, 2023, Osiris-Rex plans to dismantle its model revenue capsule, which will land in the Utah Desert and be recovered for exploration.

Has this not been done before?

Yes. Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft successfully returns small grains Asteroid 25143 Idokawa To Earth in 2010. Its successor, Hayapusa-2, In 2019 he threw a special copper bullet at the large asteroid Ryu And then recovered some small pieces. That model is on its way back to Earth.

How can I see?

Follow NASA Livestream, Which will be held on Tuesday at 2 p.m. You can follow Osiris-Rex Twitter feed Get the latest updates.