OSIRIS-REx mission to collect asteroid samples is successful

 

In case you don't know about this sample return from an asteroid, here is the basic mission. 

OSIRIS-REx will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and bring a small sample back to Earth for study. The mission launched Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As planned, the spacecraft will reach Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.

Here's the update: The space craft successfully orbited the asteroid and poked it for a collection of material to bring back to earth. This is a first for Nasa. So far, only one mission from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)—the original Hayabusa—has returned pristine samples from an asteroid to Earth.

Today, we have a video of the touchdown and it is just as cool as you would think. Check it out below.

Check out NASA's new transformative robot design for space exploration

 

Made of a pair of two-wheeled vehicles, NASA's DuAxel is designed to descend crater sides and near-vertical cliffs on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

A rover trundles over rocky terrain, its four metal wheels clattering along until they encounter a seemingly insurmountable hazard: a steep slope. Down below is a potential trove of science targets. With a typical rover, the operators would need to find another target, but this is DuAxel, a robot built for situations exactly like this.

Check out the video below.