Morlock Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 A lot of you have heard about this. An attempt to collect meteoritic samples from an asteroid 207 million miles away. You can watch it on NASA TV this evening. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/world/asteroid-bennu-earth-nasa-mission-scn-trnd/index.html https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive#.X47dYT2V7ns.mailto 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock Posted October 20, 2020 Author Share Posted October 20, 2020 (edited) I'll be amazed if they can pull off the retrieval of the meteoric material given the complexity. Edited October 20, 2020 by Morlock 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikestang Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Asteroidal samples, they're not meteorites until they crash onto something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedrock Bob Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 1 minute ago, Mikestang said: Asteroidal samples, they're not meteorites until they crash onto something else. If those samples return to earth in the belly of Buck Rodger's spaceship would they be "meteoric"? How about if Buck Rodger's spaceship lost power, slipped from orbit and crashed on landing? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock Posted October 20, 2020 Author Share Posted October 20, 2020 2 hours ago, Mikestang said: Asteroidal samples, they're not meteorites until they crash onto something else. What if they scoop up meteorites that have bombarded the surface of Bennu for eons? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedrock Bob Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Exploding Bennutian sandstone originally from Mars! At the NASA facility I worked at they studied micrometeoroids. Those rascals rip through flight equipment easily. They put shields around important stuff to keep the micrometeoroids from damaging them. They fired rocks (and ice and chunks of steel) at cosmic speeds at hardware mounted in vacuum tanks. They would purge the tanks with hydrogen and then draw a deep vacuum on the tank. They shot the projectile through a light gas gun using a gunpowder explosion to compress the gas. It propelled the projectile at "near" cosmic speed into the target. If it is asteroidal before it makes impact but a meteoritic after impact then we have a conundrum. Are asteroids simply meteoroids that have not got in trouble yet? If that asteroid bumps into the spacecraft on landing does that mean it is a meteoroid? If micrometeoroids are meteoritic (or meteoroidal)because they hit flight hardware wouldnt the samples from Bennu be meteoritic (or meteoroidal) as soon as they hit the bottom of the collection jar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikestang Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 6 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said: If those samples return to earth in the belly of Buck Rodger's spaceship would they be "meteoric"? How about if Buck Rodger's spaceship lost power, slipped from orbit and crashed on landing? If they fell out of the space ship and fell along side of it, yes! 3 hours ago, Morlock said: What if they scoop up meteorites that have bombarded the surface of Bennu for eons? Ooooo good one! Yes, if they pick up meteorites from Bennu then there ya go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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