Touch and go
July 2020
The sampling head will touch the
surface for five seconds. Duringthis
a burst of nitrogen gas will kick
up loose material, which will be
collected and stored.
Dropping off the goods
September 2023
Fourhours before reaching Earth’s
atmosphere, the SRC will be
jettisoned from the spacecraft,
where it will eventually land
somewhereintheUtahDesert.s,,S F a j w sLeaving the scene
March 2021
After the sample has been placed in
the Sample Return Capsule (SRC),
it will evacuate Bennu and begin its
two-and-a-half year journey back
toEarth.Main
objectives
Searching for the
origin of life
Return a sample of a carbon-rich asteroid
that hasn’t been contaminated by Earth
entry and analyse the sample for signs of
ancient water and organic compounds.Probing Bennu’s evolution
This mission will fully map the geology,
mineralogy and surface properties of
asteroid Bennu, which will hopefully reveal
its geological history.Understand the
Yarkovsky effect
The Yarkovsky effect is the thermal force
acting upon a rotating body in space, and
in this case the rotating body is Bennu. This
will help understand the behaviour of a
potentially hazardous asteroid.© NASA © NASA© NASA/ University of ArizonaNightingale
Latitude: 56 degrees
Longitude: 43 degrees
Thiswaschosenasthesitethat
willbekissedbyOSIRIS-REx’s
TAGSAMarminJuly2020.The
factitisnearthenorthpole
meansthisregionhasstayed
coolformillionsofyears.Kingfisher
Latitude: 11 degrees
Longitude: 56 degrees
Oneofthetwositesthatare
situatedneartheequatorofthe
asteroid,thisparticularsiteisnear
a smallcraterandsurroundedby
boulders.Thissiteshowedstrong
signsofhydratedminerals.Osprey
Latitude: 11 degrees
Longitude: 88 degrees
Theothersitenear
theequatorwasalso
consideredbecause
itappearstohavean
interestingdiversityof
rocktypesintheregion.
Ithasalsoshowedthe
strongestsignsfor
carbon-richmaterial.© NASA