To Bennu and Back: Sampling an Asteroid

Seven years ago, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft - short for Origins, Spectral interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer - set out for the small, top-shaped asteroid called Bennu to collect a sample from its surface. But that simple concept in words belies the physical challenges of these small asteroids that scientists and engineers had to overcome.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, along with colleagues in Canada and across the United States, played a critical part in developing a solution.
On Sunday, Sept. 24th, the OSIRIS-REx mission will release a capsule containing a 4.5-billion-year-old sample of an asteroid to Earth for curation and study. This is the first time that NASA has returned an asteroid sample and is the largest asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth. The asteroid is rich in organic material and the sample could tell us about the origins of life on Earth.
Find out how they used APL’s Small Body Mapping Tool and autonomous technology that together helped make the sampling mission possible. jhuapl.link/yqi
Learn more about Johns Hopkins APL: www.jhuapl.edu/
OSIRIS-REx NASA page: www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex