The realization of a particularly rocky Bennu dramatically affected the plans for the positioning selection and TAG. It is not unusual on a NASA mission for scientists and engineers to work closely together. As of today, the spacecraft is 57 million km from Bennu, traveling at eight km/sec relative to Earth. The one-way light time for transmissions from the spacecraft back to the ground is 100 seconds, which is an increase of 15 seconds within the last week.
Further reconstruction analysis this week by the mission teamconfirmed that the spacecraft’s deep space maneuveron June 28 was successful and closely adopted the team’s design and predicts. Also on Earth, the Science Operations Planning Group is within the midst of planning operations for the primary three weeks of Approach Phase, which can start on August 17. From Oct. 25 to Nov. 5, the OCAMS cameras made observations for the Daily Phase Function science campaign. The images from this marketing campaign provide information to measure adjustments in mild reflected from Bennu’s floor because the Sun illuminates the asteroid from completely different angles.
On Mar. 20, the spacecraft performed a third navigation maneuver to continue its journey back to Bennu for the ultimate flyover on Apr. 7. OSIRIS-REx executed a fourth navigation maneuver on Mar. 27, which adjusted the spacecraft’s trajectory to target the location of the fifth and ultimate maneuver. This fifth maneuver is scheduled for Apr. 4, and can place the spacecraft on the precise trajectory for the ultimate flyby. This last week the spacecraft’s MapCam digital camera additionally began taking every day Phase Function images. These images help the mission’s science requirement to measure changes in mild reflected from Bennu’s surface because the Sun illuminates the asteroid across a spread of angles.
Because of the sudden turn of occasions, scientists will not understand how a lot the sample capsule holds until it’s back on Earth. Scientists’ fashions of asteroid trajectories all the time embody a point of uncertainty, since a large number of forces tug at a space rock as a end result of it rattles across the interior photo voltaic system. That uncertainty stays even throughout the new and improved fashions of Bennu’s future path, however with the OSIRIS-REx observations, scientists had been in a position to dramatically cut back their uncertainty about Bennu’s destiny.
To mark the transition, the spacecraft returned to using the +X Low Gain Antenna for its communications again to Earth. On Jan. 10, the spacecraft performed one other tilting maneuver in help of the continuing outgassing marketing catch deepspace neutrinos lay in greenland campaign. On Jan. 15, the spacecraft resumed communicating again to Earth over its High Gain Antenna, following a four-month period limited to the Low Gain Antennas with attendant low downlink rates.