If This NASA Spacecraft Can Avoid 'Mount Doom,' It Might Nab A Bit Of Asteroid
"A NASA spacecraft, if all goes well, will soon touch down briefly on a skyscraper-
sized asteroid 200 million miles away, in order to collect a small amount of rock and dust that can then be returned to Earth."
"The probe, called OSIRIS-REx, is about as big as a 15-passenger van, and it needs to land for just 5 to 10 seconds on specific spot inside a boulder-strewn crater. The maneuver on Tuesday will be tricky and fraught with peril, as the spacecraft tries to reach a safe area that's only the size of a few parking spaces."
"'It's up to fate and to a little bit of luck at this point as to how the sampling event goes," says Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, the principal investigator for the mission. He says he feels anxious but does yoga to calm his nerves. 'I'm highly confident that the spacecraft will remain safe. My biggest concern is that it will not make it down to the surface of the asteroid.'"
"The spinning top-shaped asteroid, named Bennu, is one of close to a million known asteroids in our solar system. Scientists want to study it in part to improve our planetary defenses against potentially dangerous space rocks. Bennu, for example, has a small chance of someday striking Earth."