NASA collects asteroid samples - 28th October 2020

NASA has carried out a mission to collect samples from ancient asteroid Bennu.

The US agency's robotic spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, had left its Cape Canaveral launchpad in Florida on 8th September 2016. It journeyed 330 million kilometres through space before landing on Bennu.

Dante Lauretta: “And so this is what is actually at the end of that long robotic arm. You can see it's about 30 centimetres or about a foot in diameter. And this is what we placed onto the surface of the asteroid.”.

The landing saw the spacecraft’s robotic arm break up the surface of Bennu. Nitrogen was then blown into the ground. This sent dust into the robotic arm’s collection box.

OSIRIS-REx then set off on its return journey to Earth with a 400 gramme load of rocky material from the asteroid's surface.

Currently, the spacecraft is on its way back to Earth. It’s due to arrive with the samples in 2023.