The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft carried out a two-year reconnaissance and sample collection at the asteroid Bennu, providing essential information about the 500-meter-wide potentially harmful debris pile/space rock. When OSIRIS-REx gotten here on Dec. 3, 2018, it needed some challenging navigation and accurate maneuvers to make the objective work.
Experts at NASA Goddards Scientific Visualization Studio produced an amazing visualization of the course the spacecraft took throughout its examinations. A brief movie called “A Web Around Asteroid Bennu” highlights the intricacy of the mission, and the movie is being shown at the SIGGRAPH computer system graphics conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a festival honoring standout works of computer system animated storytelling.
Other movies in the festival include Disneys “Encanto” and Warner Brothers “The Batman.”
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Data visualizer Kel Elkins put together the data for the movie, which reveals the web-like flight path for OSIRIS-REx, in addition to the touch-and-go, or TAG, maneuver to collect the sample from the asteroids surface area.
” I began dealing with the trajectory information in 2015,” Elkins said. “And when you first see a picture of all the different maneuvers it appears like a rats nest. It was actually exciting to see these complex maneuvers in 3D area.”
The video runs about four minutes in total, revealing the flight course around Bennu from beginning to end in a single, continuous shot.
Screenshot from the visualization of OSIRIS-RExs orbital course.
” From a trajectory and navigation point of view, the team truly did things that have actually never ever been done prior to in planetary expedition,” stated Mike Moreau, deputy project supervisor for OSIRIS-REx at NASA Goddard. “We flew the spacecraft better to this things than any spacecraft has ever been flown before; we did maneuvers that were centimeters per second, or millimeters per second, in order to get the spacecraft exactly where it required to be and to alter its orbit.”
Taking their data visualization to the next level, Elkins and associates prepare to release a 360-degree variation of “A Web Around Asteroid Bennu” that covers the video around the audience, for an interactive experience on VR headsets, mobile phones, and online.
” As remarkable as it is to see the trajectory in front of you in the initial format, theres something about putting the viewer in the middle of it and letting them browse,” Elkins said. “Youre in area and OSIRIS-REx is flying around you. Were truly excited to be able to release this additional 360-degree view.”
This illustration reveals the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft leaving asteroid Bennu to start its two-year journey back to Earth. Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
OSIRIS-REx is presently on its method back towards Earth, and in September 2023, will drop off a sample in the Utah desert. As soon as the sample is retrieved, the spacecraft has been given a new objective, and it will be heading to among the most notorious asteroids of them all, the possibly hazardous asteroid Apophis for an 18 month study. The mission will be relabelled OSIRIS-APEX, which is short for OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer.
Source: NASA
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“And when you first see an image of all the different maneuvers it looks like a rats nest. It was really interesting to see these complicated maneuvers in 3D area.”
“Youre in area and OSIRIS-REx is flying around you. OSIRIS-REx is presently on its method back towards Earth, and in September 2023, will drop off a sample in the Utah desert. As soon as the sample is obtained, the spacecraft has actually been provided a new objective, and it will be heading to one of the most notorious asteroids of them all, the possibly dangerous asteroid Apophis for an 18 month study.