Now’s the day to Get NASA’s mission that seeks to pluck asteroid dust

Expand / Artist’s concept of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample in the asteroid Bennu. (charge: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

Hundreds of engineers and scientists have worked for the greater part of two years to reach this stage. Nowadays, their passenger-van sized spacecraft is now ready for the big moment, moving near an asteroid around so long as the Empire State Building is tall.

Later now, this distance drama will play 333 million km from Earth. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will process a asteroid called Bennu and expand its own sampling arm. The round head in the conclusion of the arm will basically bump in the asteroid for around five minutes.

In this crucial juncture, the spacecraft will repel rainwater gas on the surface of Bennu, aiming to push little particles onto the asteroid’s surface–using a diameter of 2cm or more –right into a device comparable to a catcher’s mitt.