Here’s How Sept. 24 Asteroid Sample Delivery Will Work
Here’s How Sept. 24 Asteroid Sample Delivery Will Work
Early morning on Sunday, Sept. 24, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample capsule will come face-to-face with Earth’s atmosphere for the first time since the mission’s 2016 launch. On board are an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of rocky material collected from the surface of Bennu in 2020 – NASA’s first asteroid sample and the largest ever collected in space.
When it approaches Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft won’t slow down as it makes its sample drop-off. Instead, when it reaches 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface – about one-third the distance from Earth to the Moon – a message from operators on the ground will trigger the capsule’s release and the capsule will be sent spinning toward the atmosphere below. Twenty minutes after the drop-off, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters to divert past Earth toward asteroid Apophis, where it will continue investigating our solar system under a new name: OSIRIS-APEX (OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer).
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Ultra High Definition (4K) Crew Earth Observations
NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. The International Space Station hosts a variety of payloads and experiments supporting climate research, weather predictions, hurricane monitoring, pollution tracking, disaster response and more. For more on how NASA uses space to understand our home planet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow Read more on 4K in space: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/red_epic_dragon_camera *To view in 4k, be sure to change resolution under "Settings" menu in YouTube viewer to "2160p 4k". (Video: NASA) HD download: https://archive.org/details/NASA-Ultra-High-Definition
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Tour of the Moon in 4K
Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks to data provided by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. As the visualization moves around the near side, far side, north and south poles, we highlight interesting features, sites, and information gathered on the lunar terrain. Music Provided By Killer Tracks: "Never Looking Back" - Frederick Wiedmann. "Flying over Turmoil" - Benjamin Krause & Scott Goodman. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4619 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/David Ladd & Ernie Wright Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer – Scientific Visualization Studio David
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Got three minutes
Got three minutes to spare for a tour of southern Europe? That’s all the time it takes, when you have a 4K camera orbiting Earth 250 miles up—and we do, on the International Space Station. This Ultra High Definition video was shot in August 2016 as the station traveled nearly 1000 miles, taking in views from above the western coast of France to the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria, and southward to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Music by Joakim Karud. HD download link: https://archive.org/details/jsc2017m000654_Europe-from-Space-in-4K _______________________________________ FOLLOW THE SPACE STATION! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Space_Station Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ISS Instagram: https://instagram.com/iss
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Close NASA’s Lucy Mission Extends its Solar Arrays
NASA’s Lucy mission tests the deployment of its solar arrays in the thermal vacuum chamber at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Each of the two circular arrays is nearly 24 feet (7.3 m) wide. These arrays will power Lucy on its 12-year odyssey through the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, breaking records for a solar powered mission by traveling 530 million miles (853 million km) from the Sun. These large arrays will capture the sunlight needed to power the spacecraft as it travels through deep space. More: nasa.gov/lucy Music: "CSI," Anthony Edward Phillips, Atmosphere Music, Ltd. Video credit: Copyright Lockheed Martin, 2021; used with permission
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