This week, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft conducted a final rehearsed of all of the maneuvers it will need to touchdown on the asteroid Bennu and collect a sample from it in the fall.
The collection will occur on October 20, making it NASA's first spacecraft to collect a sample from an asteroid and return it to Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx will leave Bennu in 2021 and return to Earth in September 2023 carrying about 30 sugar packets worth of material from the asteroid.
Bennu is 179 million miles from Earth, but it's considered a near-Earth asteroid. The asteroid could pass close to Earth, closer than the moon, in 2135, with even closer approaches possible in 2175 and 2195. A direct hit is unlikely, but the data gathered during this mission can help determine the best ways to deflect near-Earth asteroids.
The samples from Bennu could help scientists understand not only more about asteroids that could impact Earth but also about how planets formed and life began.
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