Bennu asteroid spacecraft has parts from Southampton

Infra-red detectors produced by Leonardo in Southampton are currently travelling through space with Bennu, the 2bn year old asteroid, which is calculated to have a 1 in 3,000 chance of hitting Earth late in the 22nd century, according to the company.

Arizona State University (ASU) selected Leonardo’s infra-red sensors (pictured) for their Osiris-Rex thermal emission spectrometer (OTES) instrument, which allowed minerals on the surface of the asteroid to be detected.

“We are very happy with the mapping of Bennu,” said ASU sensor team leader Greg Mehall. “Our OTES instrument performed well throughout the mapping phase, the Leonardo detector worked splendidly.”

Prior to launch, as a gesture of gratitude for two years of collaboration, ASU attached the signatures of the Southampton team to OTES.

The spacecraft reached the asteroid in October after travelling 1.8bn km, guided by a star tracker built by Leonardo in Italy. “This navigation device recognises known stars and constellations and can then work out the orientation of the satellite relative to certain stars. It can then provide the on-board computer with the information required to keep the satellite on-course,” said the company.

Osiris-Rex is the spacecraft that collected samples from the surface of Bennu recently, following the mapping phase, and is currently waiting for correct orbital alignment to start its journey back to Earth to deliver the samples in 2023.

Leonardo, formerly Finmeccanica, is headquartered in Italy and includes AgustaWestland amongst other UK assets. It employs 7,500 people in the UK across seven sites: Basildon, Bristol, Edinburgh, Lincoln, Luton, Southampton and Yeovil.