OSIRIS-REx Trajectory July 2022 - October 2023
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will deliver a capsule with fragments of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The spacecraft briefly touched down on Bennu in October 2020 and gathered an estimated cupful of material. Seven months later, it departed Bennu on a 1.2-billion-mile cruise back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx will release the capsule above Earth’s atmosphere for a landing in Utah’s West Desert and continue flying past Earth. After delivering the sample, the spacecraft will adopt a new name for an extended mission to asteroid Apophis: OSIRIS-APEX. It will spend 5.5 years in an elliptical orbit of the Sun and rendezvous with Apophis in 2029. It will orbit and study Apophis for 1.5 years and then venture close to its surface to stir up loose material.
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How NASA Uses Gravity and Radio Waves to Study Planets and Moons
The Deep Space Network, NASA’s international collection of giant radio antennas used to communicate with spacecraft at the Moon and beyond, helps scientists and engineers use gravity and radio science experiments to learn more about our planetary neighborhood.
After reaching a spacecraft reaches its destination, it uses radio antennas to communicate with the Deep Space Network, which in turn transmits radio signals back to the spacecraft. Every spacecraft travels in a predetermined path emitting radio signals as it orbits around its target. Scientists and engineers can infer the spacecraft's location and how fast it's going by measuring changes in the spacecraft's radio signal frequency. This is made possible by the Doppler effect, the same phenomenon that causes a siren to sound different as it travels towards and away from you.
The Doppler phenomenon is observed here when the spacecraft and the Deep Space Network antenna move in relation to each other. Differences between the frequency of radio signals sent by the spacecraft as it orbits and signals received on Earth give us details about the gravitational field of a planetary body. For example, if the gravity is slightly stronger, the spacecraft will accelerate slightly more. If gravity is slightly weaker, the spacecraft will accelerate slightly less. By developing a model of the planetary body's gravitational field, which can be mapped as a gravitational shape, scientists and researchers can deduce information about its internal structure.
The Deep Space Network was developed by and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The antennas of the Deep Space Network are the indispensable link to robotic explorers venturing beyond Earth. They provide the crucial connection for commanding our spacecraft and receiving never-before-seen images and scientific information on Earth, propelling our understanding of the universe, our solar system and ultimately, our place within it.
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