Redwire Technology Helps Keep NASA’s OSIRIS-REx on Course to Asteroid Bennu + Beyond!
Redwire Space
Redwire is the leading developer of mission critical solutions for next generation space infrastructure.
The aerospace community held its collective breath with NASA mission control on October 20, 2020, as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx successfully fulfilled its mission to collect dust and rock samples from asteroid Bennu.
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36), and is bringing back a 2.1-ounce sample back to Earth for study. After orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully made sample collections from Bennu. Part of this feat is that the spacecraft did not touch down on Bennu; only the robotic sample arm set down on the surface of the asteroid. The van-sized spacecraft negotiated building-size boulders to reach a relatively clear space called Nightingale, which is roughly a few parking spaces in size.
Caption: OSIRIS-REx spacecraft "tagging" asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Univ. of Arizona
Earlier this year, NASA announced that the OSIRIS-REx mission would be extended to visit another asteroid, the asteroid Apophis, and be renamed OSIRIS-APEX. The spacecraft will visit Apophis in 2029 and attempt to collect data, not a sample, from this asteroid.
Redwire contributed our Coarse Sun Sensor to the OSIRIS-REx mission, which is responsible for OSIRIS-REx’s solar-array pointing, sun acquisition and fail-safe recovery operations.
The Coarse Sun Sensor Detector is a navigational instrument used by spacecraft to detect the position of the sun.
Redwire is proud to be part of this historic mission. Amongst other scientific advances put forth by this mission, humankind will get a window into the origins of the universe. The samples from Bennu could help scientists understand not only more about asteroids that could impact Earth but also about how planets formed, and life began.
Read the original article on the Redwire website: Redwire Technology Helps Keep NASA’s OSIRIS-REx on Course to Asteroid Bennu
For more information about the Space Coarse Sun Sensor, click here.
To learn more about the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, click here.