After 1.2 Billion Miles, OSIRIS-REx Reaches Asteroid Bennu
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/UA
On December 3rd, 2018, OSIRIS-REx successfully completed its 1.2 billion mile trip to asteroid Bennu. The mission science goals of the initial survey of the asteroid are to closely refine the current estimates of the asteroid's characteristics such as mass and spin rate. These characteristics allow the navigation team to further refine navigation precision to achieve requirements, and are the primary science goals of the Preliminary Survey phase. Using spacecraft data, navigators will work with mission scientists to build a precise model of the asteroid's shape which will later help determine the best landing sites for the sample collection.
