The path of the spacecraft is being monitored by the Doppler shift in radio signals to the Deep Space Network at the Goldstone Observatory in California. Precise path calculations will require less fuel consumption so this means that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is actually saving up on fuel. "The mission had allocated approximately 388 ounces (11 kilograms) of propellant for TCM-1 to create a velocity change of up to 26 miles per hour (11.6 meters per second), had it been necessary," a NASA official said in a press release. However, NASA scientists still decided to test fire the thrusters to see its capacity and to prepare for bigger "propulsive maneuver" that is set to take place in December.Įngineers in charge of OSIRIS-REx plan for future trajectory corrections and its fuel consumptions are already included in its propellant load. The spacecraft was propelled by United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket the rocket was very accurate with its calculations that fine-tuning of the spacecraft's trajectory was not necessary. At the moment, the spacecraft is already nine million miles (14.5 million kilometers) away from the planet.īut this thruster test is not a surprise it is already included in the flight plan to correct its trajectory if there's a need for it after lift-off on Sept. The maneuver also used about 18 ounces of OSIRIS-REx fuel. The outcome of the test fire is a slight change in the spacecraft's velocity by 1.1 miles (50 centimeters per second) per hour. The process began at 1:00 pm and successfully fired the thrusters for 12 seconds. This sensitive maneuver was carefully executed last Friday. This was done to fine-tune the path of the spacecraft from Earth to its target asteroid, Bennu. The spacecraft fired its Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thrusters last Friday, Oct. The mission is to perform a comprehensive surface mapping of an asteroid to give more information about the formation of Earth and the Solar System because asteroids are believed to be one of the oldest space rocks. OSIRIS-REx was launched into space last September. NASA test fired OSIRIS-REx thrusters while the spacecraft is on its way to a rendezvous with asteroid Bennu. Aside from that, every spacecraft tasked to go somewhere deeper in space requires innovative systems and engines including thrusters. Traveling beyond the low-Earth orbit requires precision and pre-calculated maneuvers. Along the way, the agency tried the thrusters aboard the spacecraft. NASA is aiming for an information-rich asteroid through its asteroid-mapping spacecraft Osiris-REx, which is on its way to map asteroid Bennu.
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