Experts at NASA Goddard’s Visualization Science Studio have created a stunning visualization of the path the spacecraft took during its investigations. A short film called “A Web Around Asteroid Bennu” highlights the mission’s complexities, and the film is being shown at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a festival honoring exceptional works in computer-animated storytelling. Other films in the festival include Disney’s “Encanto” and Warner Brothers’ “The Batman.” Remove all ads on Universe Today Join our Patreon for just $3! Get the ad-free experience of a lifetime Data visualizer Kel Elkins compiled the data for the movie, which shows the web-like flight path for OSIRIS-REx, as well as the touch-and-go, or TAG, maneuver to collect the sample from its surface asteroid. “I started working with the trajectory data in 2015,” Elkins said. “And when you first see a picture of all the different maneuvers, it looks like a rat’s nest. But it was really exciting to see these complex maneuvers in three-dimensional space.” The video lasts about four minutes in total, showing the flight path around Bennu from start to finish in a single, continuous shot. Snapshot of OSIRIS-REx orbital path visualization. “From an orbit and navigation standpoint, the team really did things that had never been done before in planetary exploration,” said Mike Moreau, associate project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA Goddard. “We flew the spacecraft closer to this object than any other spacecraft has ever flown. we made maneuvers that were centimeters per second or milliseconds per second in order to get the spacecraft exactly where it needed to be and change its trajectory.” Taking their data visualization to the next level, Elkins and colleagues plan to release a 360-degree version of “A Web Around Asteroid Bennu” that wraps the video around the viewer, for an interactive experience in VR headsets, mobile devices and on the internet. “As amazing as it is to see the orbit in front of you in its original form, there’s something about putting the viewer in the middle of it and letting them look around,” Elkins said. “You’re in space and OSIRIS-REx is flying around you. We are really excited to release this additional 360-degree view.” This image shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departing from the asteroid Bennu to begin its two-year journey back to Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx is currently on its way back to Earth, and in September 2023, it will drop a sample in the Utah desert. Once the sample is retrieved, the spacecraft has been given a new mission and will head to one of the most notorious asteroids of all, the potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis for an 18-month study. The mission will be renamed OSIRIS-APEX, short for OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer. Source: NASA
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