In the Sky This Week – November 3, 2020
The sample head overflowing with bits of asteroid Bennu has been safely stowed in the return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – I can stop waving my hands frantically and breathe a bit easier! Now, I have to hurry-up-and-wait for launch windows and the time-consuming interplanetary Hohmann orbital mechanics before that sample is returned to Earth in 2023.Like Douglas Adams said: “Space is Big!” I REALLY want a piece of Bennu; I asked Dolores Hill several questions about a possible privately-funded sample return mission with a larger sample head. Dolores said “A huge sampling head may or may not be helpful. If ours had been too big, it would have made it harder to locate a large enough, safe site. A larger head would be heavier – require more gas to flow through it, etc. But, who knows, the engineers know how to scale up. Almost anything is possible given enough resources. Regarding paying for itself…”In my opinion, it would … Continue reading →