Washington (AFP)
The US probe Osiris-Rex briefly came into contact with asteroid Bennu on Tuesday, as expected, NASA confirmed, but the success of the sampling operation will not be known for a few days.
"Contact confirmed" ... "Sampling completed," the space agency announced during a live broadcast of operations, triggering a standing ovation among the team after this few seconds step, more than four years after the launch of the probe.
"Everything went perfectly," announced a few minutes later Dante Lauretta, the head of the mission, overcome with emotions.
"We have written a page of history tonight," he said.
After throwing compressed nitrogen against Bennu's surface, the probe arm was supposed to collect particles less than 2 centimeters in diameter raised by the blast.
The goal was to accumulate during those few seconds at least 60 grams, which would make it the largest alien sample taken since the Apollo lunar missions.
But the exact mass of the sample is not expected to be known until Saturday.
For now, Osiris-Rex has only been able to send confirmation messages, no image: the probe will only be able to do so on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, once it has returned to its orbit at a safe distance from the asteroid , after charging its batteries.
In the next few hours and days a lot of data and images will be sent giving an indication of whether the sampling was successful or not.
The probe arm may not have been able to land on a flat surface and pick up dust, for example if it fell on a large rock.
In case of failure, another attempt could be decided, on another site, in January.
In March 2021, Osiris-Rex will begin its long journey back to Earth.
She will eventually release the container containing the samples for a landing in the Utah desert, slowed down by a parachute, on September 24, 2023.
© 2020 AFP