NASA Asteroid landing successful: Bennu Asteroid video shows TAG event

NASA has managed to create history yet again and this time the private space agency has successfully landed a spacecraft on an asteroid. This mission helped the agency to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for analysis back on Earth. This NASA mission is popular as a "Touch-and-Go" event, called TAG. It will take a week for the team to determine how much materials were picked by the spacecraft.

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NASA asteroid landing successful

The successful NASA Bennu landing has helped the agency to collect some important samples from the asteroid. With an extended robotic arm from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the spacecraft briefly contacted the rugged surface of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday to gobble up pristine samples. This $1 billion mission has enabled humanity to first-hand test the asteroid materials on Earth. The NASA spacecraft is set to return on the Earth surface by 2023.

As per a report by The Guardian, everything happened as the team planned, from sample collection to lifting off from Bennu's surface. The lead scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona said “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off. The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”

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As per the report, the NASA Bennu mission team had received a confirmation from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sending cheers around the world. Nevertheless, it will take the team a week's time to know how many samples were grabbed by the spacecraft in the TAG event. 

According to the report, it took the NASA Bennu spacecraft around 2 years to find a good spot to land and grab the biggest patch of particles which are small enough to be swallowed up. As soon as the location was determined, the landing was set. To suck up any loose pebbles or dust and required samples, the spacecraft was programmed to shoot out pressurized nitrogen gas to stir up the surface. It is said that scientist need between 2 ounces (60g) and 4 pounds (2kg) of Bennu’s carbon-rich material thought to contain the building blocks of our solar system.

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NASA's official blog had revealed that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sent to Bennu asteroid is capable of making up to three touch-and-go manoeuvres if the scientist believes the collected samples are inadequate. Nevertheless, even if the collection of the sample is completed in the first try, it is quite evident that the NASA Bennu spacecraft will not return to Earth with the samples until 2023 and the capsule will land into the Utah desert during its return. Apart from this, NASA is planning for three more asteroid missions in the next two years.

However, the NASA Bennu mission would not be the first mission of humanity to bring asteroid samples on Earth. A Japan-based asteroid mission called the Hayabusa2 is hopefully going to be the first mission where the samples collected from the 4.5bn-year-old asteroid Ryugu will be brought to our planet in December. Nevertheless, NASA success at the collection of the samples from Bennu only sets forward a future of much greater analysis of an asteroid in the outer space. 

Promo Image/ All Images ~ NASA

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