OSIRIS-REx successfully delivers NASA's first asteroid sample NASA's first asteroid sample return mission delivered on Sunday, when the OSIRIS-REx capsule touched down in the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City. OSIRIS-REx – full name Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer – flew by the Earth on Sunday …
Of course I also welcome our new Asteroid Overlords.
I named him Benny!
Downside to this landing is we're probably going to have to wait a while for any data or papers. Already rather fascinating though given the landing didn't go quite as expected, ie rather than being solid, it was a ball of grit. So raises interesting prospects for future asteroid mining, if that can be done with space hoovers rather than drilling. But then the challenge of vacuuming in a vacuum. Also fun thinking about the challenges of follow-up missions. So ok, we got this sample, now let's go back and sample the core.. which may take some time.
If Mr. Barnes is a fairly light individual that might well be true. The MarS emergency chute I often fly with (in a glider) is rated for 5.5 m/s at 100kg pilot weight iirc. At 120kg pilot weight it'll come down at 7 m/s. Extrapolating backwards an 80 kg individual would probably be coming down at around 3,5 to 4 m/s (decent speed doesn't quite scale linearly)
"A quick calculation (using a web site so it's probably wrong) said 5m/s is equivalent to jumping from 1.3m. I'd expect and emergency chute to be much harsher than that."
My own quick calculation (using my memory, pen, paper and calculator) comes up with the same result.
V^2 = u^2 +2as
u= starting velocity=0
a=acceleration due to gravity=9.81
v=final velocity
s distance travelled
Set v=5, rearrange for s and you get distance=1.3m to 1 decimal place. This ignores air resistance, which you probably shouldn't do in any decision to actually use a parachute.
The Reg sums it up with this sentence "It then spent two more years studying the asteroid's surface to identify optimal landing and sample collection points."
It spent two years there studying the asteroid, but it wasn't just figuring out where to land. It spent that time doing all kids of scientific studies of the asteroid with lots of on-board instruments. The sample grabbing part didn't just need the surface to be mapped first, it was also the riskiest thing to do, so left until the end of the mission.
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