NASA zeros in on asteroid landing site
Nightingale is
OSIRIS-REx’s
primary sample
collection site on
asteroid Bennu,
shown here with
an overlaid graphic
of the OSIRIS-REx
spacecraft.
(NASA/Goddard/
University of Arizona)Canadian scientists will have new rocks to study
after a NASA asteroid mission team brings back samples
from the asteroid Bennu, which has been mapped using
Canadian technology.
In late 2019, scientists and engineers chose the primary and
backup sample collection sites on the asteroid. Canadian tech
was used to collect data for the maps that led to the decision.
Representatives from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation,
Resource Identiication, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-
REx) mission announced the primary “Nightingale” sample
collection site.
Launched in September 2016, the mission has been
surveying Bennu since December 2018. he Canadian
Space Agency’s OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) has
been surveying Bennu’s surface, helping to build a
detailed three-dimensional map of the asteroid.
Tim Haltigin is the senior mission scientist in planetary
exploration for the Canadian Space Agency. Responsible
for the overall operations of the OLA instrument, he said
the last year of mapping has been in preparation for select-
ing the sample collection site on the surface.
“OLA’s been tremendously busy,” he said. “We’ve shot
almost three billion individual laser measurements, so
we’ve created a surface map of Bennu that has one point
every seven centimetres.”
He said the next several months are going to be spent
characterizing Nightingale and Osprey in even greater
detail, with one point every two to three centimetres.
“It’s historic,” he said. “his is probably the best characterized
surface of any planetary body in the solar system, and it was
made with Canadian technology. So it’s really, really exciting.”About 15 people are involved in OLA, and hundreds worked
on the project since 2011. Haltigin said its development is the
result of “an awful lot of work by an awful lot of people.”his is the irst time Canada has been involved in an asteroid
sample return mission.Haltigin pointed out OSIRIS-REx should collect a minimum
of 60 grams of material, and the maximum the container can
carry is two kilograms.“Entire careers can be made on the
analysis of single grains of this material,” Haltigin said.Canada’s involvement means the country gets four per cent
of the sample set to come back to Earth in September 2023.
he precious sample portion will be available to generations
of Canadian scientists after it arrives on Canuck soil in about
early-to-mid 2024.“Here, we’re going to be able to unravel the history of the solar
system in labs in Canada,” Haltigin said. “he way I like to
think about it — there’s kids in grade school and in kindergar-
ten and people that haven’t been born yet that are going to be
working on these samples.”A NASA press release states the mission team will undertake
further reconnaissance lights continuing through the spring.
Once these lyovers are complete, the spacecraft will begin re-
hearsals for its irst “touch-and-go” sample collection attempt,
which is scheduled for August.SKYNEWS BRIEFS
SKYNEWS • MAR/APR 2020