Thats still our biggest uncertainty what is the nature of this material in the microgravity environment? what forces are holding it together, and how does it respond when a spacecraft punches it in and then fires thrusters to back away from it? Dante Lauretta More Quotes by Dante Lauretta More Quotes From Dante Lauretta Everything was self-consistent and suggested a lot of centimeter-scale particles, probably concentrated in the equator, and I was really envisioning kind of a beach that went all the way around the asteroid in equatorial regions. Dante Lauretta science The science is really starting to ramp up, you havent seen anything yet. Dante Lauretta science Thats really exciting, you can learn a lot by bringing a sample back from an asteroid, but were going to learn exponentially more by bringing samples back from these two asteroids, which initially looked very similar to each other, may still be related to each other but have had different histories. Dante Lauretta science Water probably did circulate through the interior of the asteroid, like a hydrothermal system on Earth, and altered the originally anhydrous rocky material, forming these clays. Dante Lauretta science Were actively re-evaluating that model. Dante Lauretta science We have to upgrade the autonomous guidance system on the spacecraft, so it can be a lot smarter and guide us into that smaller region. Dante Lauretta science
