NASA's Osiris-Rex robot lands on asteroid

NASA's asteroid sample-return mission has had a successful encounter with asteroid Bennu, gathering 400 grammes of samples of cosmic dust from its surface.

The US agency's automated probe, OSIRIS REx blasted off from its Cape Canaveral launchpad on 8th September 2016, navigating 330 million kilometres of space to reach the wandering celestial body.

Dante Lauretta: “And so this is what is actually at the end of that long robotic arm. You can see it's about 30 centimetres or about a foot in diameter. And this is what we placed onto the surface of the asteroid.”

Broken apart through the force of the craft’s robotic arm impacting the asteroid, particles of gravel and dust from the surface of Bennu were propelled into the probe's material collection chamber by a burst of nitrogen.

With the samples safely stowed away for their passage to Earth, OSIRIS-REx is now voyaging home. It is predicted to touch down in Utah in 2023. View Less