NASA's OSIRIS-REx lands on Bennu in agency's first asteroid sample-return mission

OSIRIS-Rex could uncover a means of mining asteroids for precious resources like metals & water. NASA’s first-ever mission designed to visit an asteroid and return a sample of its dust back to Earth arrived Monday at its destination, Bennu, two years after its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. But Arrival is just the beginning… https://t.co/0bQPUwqUCp Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona pic.twitter.com/VyPG3gRRdw — NASA's OSIRIS-REx December 3, 2018 The carbon-rich asteroid was chosen from some 500,000 asteroids in the solar system because it orbits close to Earth’s path around the Sun, is the right size for scientific study, and is one of the oldest asteroids known to NASA. “For the past several months, Bennu has been coming into focus as I approached,” said NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Twitter account. Then, in 2020, it will reach out with its robotic arm and touch the asteroid in a maneuver Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, described as a “gentle high-five.” Using a circular device much like a car’s air filter, and a reverse vacuum to stir up and collect dust, the device aims to grab about two ounces of material from the asteroid’s surface, and return it to Earth for further study.