the OSIRIS REx in
NASA's repertoire.
I like to call it
the Daredevil spacecraft.
10 seconds.
Nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
And liftoff of OSIRIS Rex.
His seven year mission
to boldly
go to the asteroid
Bennu and back.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Welcome to today's media
briefing on the upcoming
asteroid sample
return of NASA's
Osiris-rex mission.
I'm Patrick Lynch with NASA's
Office of Communications.
And I'm joined today by mission
representatives from NASA,
the University of Arizona
and Lockheed Martin.
We're broadcasting today
from inside
a hangar
at the Army's Dugway
Proving Ground in central Utah.
And 24 days from now,
in the high mountain
desert of the Utah Test
and Training range
several miles behind us,
the Osiris-rex mission
will deliver to Earth America's
first ever sample
from an asteroid.
The mission team
earlier today
completed a drop test
with a replica
sample return capsule.
And today,
they will share details
of that test in addition
to details
of the final preparations
toward the sample return.
The climax
of a seven year journey
from the 2016 launch
at Kennedy Space Center
to the sample collection
at the asteroid BENNU and 2022
the Return to Earth
here on September 24th.
With us today, we have
leaders of the Osiris-rex
mission, Melissa morris,
the program
executive at NASA headquarters.
Rich Burns, the project manager
based at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center.
Sandy Friend, Lockheed
Martin's program manager
for the Mission.
Kevin Writer.
OSIRIS Rex, Deputy
Curation Lead at NASA's
Johnson Space Center.
And finally, Dante Lauretta,
the mission's
principal
investigator based
at the University of Arizona.
After remarks
from our panelists
will open up to questions
from the media in the room
and on the phone line.
For those on the phone,
you could press star one
to get in the queue
and ask a question.
For those in the room,
you can raise your hand.
We'll bring a microphone
to you.
And with that,
I will turn it over
to Melissa morris.
Thank you, Patrick.
I am so very excited to be here
as we head
into the final stretch
of the delivery
of these valuable
and long awaited samples
back to Earth.
As you may know,
NASA's goal for science
is to create a global community
for exploration and discovery
that fosters
innovation and inspiration.
And to that end,
NASA's invests in small body
missions like Osiris-rex
to investigate
the rich population
of asteroids
in our solar system
that can give us clues about
how the solar system
formed and evolved.
It's our own origin story.
And remember
the own Osiris-rex's
four Origins.
The Planetary Science
Mission fleet is huge
with nearly 40 missions,
and three of those missions
to small
bodies are being showcased
this fall in
something we're calling
asteroid Autumn in September.
We have, of course,
the delivery of those samples
from Bennu by Osiris-rex.
And in October
we have the launch
of the Psyche mission
to a never before seen
metal rich asteroid.
And finally, in November,
we have the Lucy flyby
of an asteroid
and the inner main belt
with providing a test
of their innovative
autonomous terminal
tracking system.
And so
osiris-rex we're
kicking off asteroid autumn.
Osiris-rex is a part
of the planetary science
Division's New
Frontiers program,
which supports
medium sized
missions that are completed
and PI led
Osiris-rex was a result
of the New Frontiers
three Announcement
of Opportunity.
It was selected in 2011.
It launched in 2016
spectacularly on time
and arrived
at the asteroid BENNU in 2018
to begin an 18 month
survey of the surface
of the asteroid,
in part to select a sample site
for collection,
and those samples
were successfully collected
in October 2020.
And then Osiris-rex headed home
with the sample in 2021.
And guess what?
We're just a few weeks away.
Get a load of the cloud
from the
from the delivery of those
samples to the Utah desert.
And so
Osiris Rex is a
phenomenal mission.
It has achieved
so much already.
It's the first US mission
from it
to return samples
from an asteroid.
And that sample mass
collected is the largest
from beyond
the orbit of the moon.
And on a personal note,
this mission is so important
to me.
It's directly applicable
to my research
into the formation
of the solar system
and early
solar system materials
in particular, components
that can be found in meteorites
that are thought to come
from parent bodies
but are very much like bennu.
So I am so excited
to see what's in these samples
and I'll turn it over to Rich
for a project overview.
Thanks, Melissa.
Our project manager,
Rich Burns.
I'm at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center.
I've been the
project manager of
our structure since launch.
It's been
an extraordinary journey
of adventure and exploration.
This mission is one
pure exploration, meaning
we didn't really know
much about Benno
before we launched,
so it surprised us in
just about every dimension.
Dante called it
the Daredevil spacecraft.
Well, all daredevils practice,
and that's
what I'm going to talk to you
about a little bit today
at least all daredevils
that lived to tell the tale.
Right.
And we are survived
coming home.
So we're very excited to be
in the final phase
of this long journey.
Seven years, as you saw,
Journey started
even before that.
Dante's been
running this marathon
for a very long time.
So how do we how do we prepare?
The Roman philosopher
Seneca said success
is the is
when preparation
meets opportunity.
We're very fortunate
to be in the position to be
be privileged,
really
to be a part of this
mission of exploration.
So we take very seriously
our preparation.
My preparation
consists of both tests
and rehearsals,
maybe indistinguishable
to a lot of people,
but we call
test when we're practicing
commanding with the spacecraft,
but we use a simulator instead,
much as a
pilot would fly
a flight simulator
rehearsals.
We put our team in the field
in the environment
they're going to be
in using
the communication tools
and the equipment
they're actually going to use
on the day of recovery.
And you're going
to see some of that
from us in the upcoming
graphics.
Today, as
Patrick mentioned,
we conducted a drop test
from a helicopter,
so we dropped a replica,
as you see right here.
This is the real
the real, real replica
that we drop from the
from the helicopter
about 7000 feet altitude.
It deployed its main parachute.
This represents
the final phase of flight
for Osiris-rex
sample return capsule
and the sample
being delivered home
under the main chute.
The descent is quite gentle.
From this point forward,
it comes screaming
into the atmosphere,
but this main chute
slows it down significantly.
This is our
was our first opportunity
to work with our colleagues
at the Utah Test
and Training Range
to track the capsule
as it descends
under the main parachute
using the sensors
that are here at the
at the range.
That worked beautifully
to locate the sample,
the location of the landing,
and then recover the
capsule from there.
Yesterday, we
placed the
capsule on the range
and practiced
our recovery techniques.
And here you see
we are recovering
the capsule with
the four helicopters
that deploy our recovery team.
First, to ensure
the area around
the landing is safe
and secure.
And then
the recovery team
approaches the capsule
to prepare it
for transport back to a clean
room, temporary clean room
that we've assembled here
at at the at the range.
This takes quite
a bit of processing
on the ground
before the capsule is ready
to be
to be transported.
Human safety,
as you're going to hear from me
in a bit,
is our number one priority.
So we make sure
the capsule itself
is ready for transport,
prepare it,
put it in a cargo net
and transport
back under a long line
via a helicopter to a building.
You saw this after
you saw this afternoon
with a temporary clean
room and embedded in it,
we land onto that long line
and then the capsule itself
gets transported
into the building
and into the clean room itself
for disassembly.
And ultimately,
as you'll hear, transport
to our curation facility.
We're very excited
about this process.
But let me tell you
a little bit
about what precedes
the reentry.
We have a major decision
just 4 hours in advance
of when that capsule enters
the earth's atmosphere.
That's whether the spacecraft
will release
the capsule or not.
That decision is based
on three criteria
human safety
is our number one priority.
As I said,
capsule survivability.
The environment,
as you'll see, is very harsh
during the atmospheric reentry
capsule reenters
at 12.3 kilometers per second
and heats up very quickly.
And then the third is
landing accuracy.
Can we land
in the prescribed area
that we know is going to be
safe and free of people?
So back in
July, we started a
sequence of maneuvers
that are intended to target
the Utah Test
and training range.
The first maneuver
conducted in July targets
a path, moves
the path of the spacecraft
to within
125 miles of the earth.
Then on September
10th,
we'll target the Utah Test
and training range,
followed by a maneuver
one week later
to refine that targeting.
As you're going to see later,
we have a very
relatively small area
to fit in,
but we're highly confident
we'll we'll hit that
after we release the capsule.
We make the decision at 2 a.m.
in the morning,
the day of release.
We'll release the capsule
at 442 Mountain Time,
assuming
we decide to release it.
And then 20 minutes later,
the space
spacecraft will make
another maneuver
to avoid Earth,
and it will be on to
its extended mission
to a soon
to be famous mission or
asteroid called Apophis.
We're very excited about
that extended mission.
We're talking about
the primary mission.
So
following all that,
we will
be targeting a
the Utah test
and training range.
It's a beautiful place
to land a sample capsule. Why?
Because it's enormous.
It's an expanse is mind
boggling, really.
Utah.
Texas may not have much on Utah
in terms of everything bigger.
Utah is pretty darn big.
So we will be targeting
an area, an
elliptical shaped
area marked here
as our expected landing area.
We will have to be sure
that we're
landing The capsule land
in that area
will make that decision
at 67,000 miles away from Earth
to release
that cash will be released
at 67,000
miles away from the earth.
And we'll hit that landing
areas about 250 square miles.
So equivalent of
throwing a dart
across the length
of a basketball court
and hitting the bullseye.
So with that said, I'm
going to
turn it over to my colleague,
Sandy friend
from Lockheed Martin.
All right. Thanks, Rich.
So like everybody else
on this panel,
I'm really excited
that we are
less than a month away
from returning these samples.
And so I'm going
to take you back
a little bit in time
before we get on the ground.
And just like
the recovery team,
our flight operations
team is busy
practicing
and rehearsing everything
that we need to do
in order
to ensure
that the sample return
capsule is released.
So like Rich mentioned,
we have that go
no go decision points.
We fully expect that decision
to be a go
at 2:00 in the morning
local time on September 24th.
So at that point,
the mission operations team,
which is located at Lockheed
Martin in Littleton,
Colorado, will be
sending the commands
to the spacecraft
that will start the sequence
to do all the events
that are needed.
So we have an animation here
that shows
actual release
from the spacecraft.
So we need to make sure
that we configure
everything we're
pointed correctly,
and then we will let go
of the sample return capsule
shortly after that.
As Rich mentioned,
we will do a divert maneuver
to make sure that
the spacecraft buzz does
not follow the capsule in.
We have a very long 4 hours
from release
Intel reentry
into the atmosphere.
You can see there
we will reenter
at about 27,000 miles per hour
over the Utah Test
and training range.
We'll deploy a drogue
chutes autonomously
that will stabilize
the capsule,
followed by the main chute.
And that's
what we rehearsed today.
That main chute gets us
to a nice, gentle
11 mile per hour touchdown
here in the desert.
Our recovery
teams will be
standing by waiting
to get the all clear
to go ahead
and approach the capsule
so that series of events
leading up to entry
are shown in our next graphic.
That breaks it down
to what actually happens
in the 13 minutes
that it takes from
when we enter the atmosphere
and how we make that
gentle touchdown
here in the desert.
So our recovery team is made up
of people from Lockheed Martin.
NASA's curation and folks
from the Utah Test
and Training range,
they're standing by.
Once the capsule's
on the ground,
they will
then approach it again.
Keeping in mind safety
first for both people,
followed by a sample.
We will take a look
at the capsule,
make sure it's safe
to approach it.
We'll approach it
to do some initial checks
out in the field
and then ready it for that
long line flight
that Rich discussed.
Once we get it back
into our clean room
here at the Utah Test
and Training range,
there'll be a little
bit of disassembly
that will take place.
The primary goal
to get the nitrogen purge
onto our sample
to keep it pristine.
Then we will ready
at first shipment.
So it will be placed inside
a specially designed
shipping container
where we will fly it
the following day
on a C-17 aircraft
from here
in Utah
down to Johnson Space Center.
So I'll turn it over to Kevin
to talk more about the curation
side of things.
All right. Thanks, Sandy.
So I'm Kevin Righter I'm
the Cyrus Rex
deputy curation
lead from Johnson Space
Center and Johnson Space Center
is the home of NASA's
Astro Materials.
We have a lot of collections
there.
For example,
the Apollo lunar samples
meteorites from Antarctica.
We have comet
samples
brought back
by the Stardust mission
and we have solar wind
ions brought back by
the Genesis mission
as some examples.
And we're very excited to have
the opportunity
here to add a new collection
to our
Astro Materials collections
at carbonaceous
rich asteroid
material from Bennu.
So the curation is all about
keeping the samples safe
and clean and uncontaminated.
And our curation team has
had two
major activities
related to the recovery,
and I'd like to
spend the next few minutes
explaining those two
and what our team has been
accomplishing.
So the first area is to aid
in the recovery.
And so some of the footage
you see here as the
rehearsing
by the field recovery team
where we have our curation
scientists, part of that team,
they'll they'll be collecting
air, soil and
water samples
around the CRC on return.
And the reason we're doing
that is to understand the
the nature of the landing site
and so that we can assess
potential contamination
later on.
We want to have a really good
understanding of
of where it landed
and the composition
of the material around
around the capsule.
So that
in addition to the field
activities,
as Sandy
alluded to, we've established
our team has established
a clean room
in a nearby building here.
And the clean room
will be
where the capsule is
brought in from the range of
the clean room.
We we've been working on this
for a couple of months.
It's activity
started back in June
and we have now,
as you can see, established
a fully functional clean room
ready ready
to receive the sample.
The purpose of the clean room
is to
allow our team
to prepare
the sample before
it gets shipped off to Houston.
And so we're
really excited about that.
So those are the
recovery efforts.
The other effort,
major effort,
the curation team
has been involved with
is establishing
a new clean room in Houston.
And you see some footage there
from that clean room.
The clean room was
was established
as a dedicated, clean
room for the samples
so that we
do not cross contaminate
with other collections.
So we will only have
bennu samples
in this clean room.
And you can see in the footage
there are two main components
to the clean.
Within the clean room
there are two
nitrogen glove boxes
that the sample will be
handled and processed in.
And this is to protect
the sample from
from contamination.
Again, the goal is to be clean
and uncontaminated.
And so the first glove box
you see there,
the larger glove
box will be
where the lid is removed
from the sample canister,
and that will reveal the tagsam
collector head
that collected
material directly from
the surface of Bennu.
Once that is
revealed and removed,
it'll be temporarily
contained and transferred
to a second glove box.
In that second glove box,
the tagsam will be disassembled
and that will take
that'll take some time.
So it'll be along
several week process
to get in
to reveal the bulk
sample that lies within
all of that hardware.
So once that once that occurs,
we will start to characterize
the sample, understand
better what we have,
how much we have,
how many different rock types
and lithologies
there might be
within the sample.
The characterization
will be used
to determine the
material that we allocate
to international partners
from JAXA
and the Canadian Space Agency,
as well as determining
what material will be
appropriate to allocate
to the science team
for their studies.
And with that,
I think
I'll turn it over to Dante,
who will tell you more
about the science.
Thank you, Kevin.
It's really amazing
to be here today.
I've imagined
the series of events
that we've been rehearsing
for literally
almost two decades,
and I have the honor
of sharing the stage
with these amazing people.
And they represent
organizations
that have brought hundreds
of individuals
to achieve this mission.
Success,
as you can see
from the first graphic here,
I've grown up on this program.
I didn't even recognize
this kid from 2008
who was writing that
New Frontiers
proposal to convince the agency
to let
let us lead this program
to bring back these
amazing samples
from the dawn
of our solar system
launching in 2016.
Seemed like the highlight
of my career at the moment,
but it was really
just the beginning
of getting us
to this incredible world,
this small asteroid named Bennu
that holds clues,
we believe, to
some of the deepest questions
that we ask ourselves
as humanity.
Let's take a look
at the asteroid.
It's a stunning
celestial object
to give you a sense of scale.
It's about 500 meters
or a little over
1600 feet in size.
That's about the size
of the Empire State Building
or like a small mountain
I like to think of,
anyway, as a small mountain
floating in outer space.
And its shape
is particularly intriguing.
It literally is a droplet
made out of rock,
gravel and boulders
that are barely held together
by their own microgravity.
And it was amazing
to have our spacecraft
visiting this
celestial neighbor
for over two years
with our prime focus
of picking that key
location
on the asteroid surface
where we sent the tagsam
the touch and go sample
acquisition mechanism,
which you can see here,
the forearm of that device
make that briefcase contact
with the asteroid surface.
And it was a really
dynamic event.
But Bennu
I call the trickster asteroid,
it has
challenged us
every step of the way.
We thought for sure
we were going to touch down
on a solid surface.
This was an asteroid.
It was a rock from outer space,
but it actually responded
more like a fluid.
Like if you dropped yourself
into a ball pit
at a children's playground.
The good news
was because of that
really soft surface,
we collected an enormous
amount of material.
We promised the agency
we would bring back two ounces
or about 60 grams of material,
we believe,
based on some very clever
spacecraft engineering
from our partners
at Lockheed Martin,
measuring the momentum
change on the spacecraft,
as we articulated
that robotic arm
that we have
at least four times
that material
in that sample return capsule.
So over eight ounces
or about 250 grams of material.
And boy, is the science team
excited to get that
in addition
to being
the principal investigator.
I'm also on the field
recovery team.
I wanted to personally
be out there to greet
these pieces of bennu
to our home planet.
Welcome them to the curation
facility at Johnson
Space Center
and get them ready
for the adventure
we're about to put them on
at the University of Arizona.
We've been building world class
laboratory instrumentation.
We have some state of the art
electron microscopes,
ion micro probes,
a whole suite
of ancillary equipment,
and one of the best parts
about being at a university
and being able
to lead a program like this
is that we're training
the next generation, right?
I've had over 200 students,
undergraduates and graduates
working in science,
engineering
and analysis,
chemistry, marketing,
graphic arts, video
production,
business management,
all of the skills
that it takes
to bring a mission
like this to a close.
And we have
an army of graduate students
that are waiting
to get involved
in the sample science program.
It's really
a great entry point
for young people
to get involved in science.
They're super excited
just to think that
that we've got
these pieces of asteroids.
And then I start to explain
the story of what
these samples
are going to tell us.
We're going back to the dawn
of the solar system.
We're looking for clues
as to
why Earth is a habitable world,
this rare jewel in outer space
that has oceans,
it has a protective atmosphere.
We think all of those materials
were brought by these carbon
rich asteroids
very early
in our planetary
system formation.
And of course,
the biggest question,
the one that drives
my scientific investigations,
is the origin of life.
What is life?
How did it originate
and why was the Earth
the place that it occurred?
And because Bennu is so rich
in carbonaceous compounds,
we've seen these
with remote
sensing instruments that we use
while we're at the asteroid.
We believe that
we're bringing back
that kind of material,
literally,
maybe representatives
of the seeds of life
that these asteroids
delivered at the beginning
of our planet
that led to this amazing
biosphere, biological evolution
and to us being here today
to look back on that
amazing history, to think about
where did we come from
and where are we going,
What does it mean
to be alive, to be conscious
in this amazing universe?
Let's take a look at the at
the last graphic.
This is where we think
it all began.
We call this
the Protoplanetary disk.
This is where stars are born.
And when a star is collapsing,
it spins out
this disk of gas and dust.
And that's
where chemistry and physics
start to work together
to build initially dust grains,
literally like snowflakes
made out of rock
and metal and sulfur
and organic materials,
ices that accrete together.
They grow into asteroids
and they grow into planets.
So the asteroids that we have
in our solar system today,
they're left
over from this earliest stage
of solar system history.
We're literally looking
at geologic materials
that formed
before the Earth even existed.
Right?
I call these like
the grandfather rocks,
the ones that really represent
our origins
and where we came from.
And I know
they've just been waiting
for four
and a half billion years
to get into that sample
return capsule,
get down to the Utah desert
safely,
get to the amazing facility
that our colleagues at Johnson
Space Center put together.
And Kevin
talked about protecting,
make sure that
they're pristine.
But a big part of the job
is also getting
that material out
to the scientific community.
This is a gift to the world.
We have laboratories
on four continents,
16 time zones,
hundreds of researchers,
over 60 laboratories
that have been getting ready
to get this material.
And we are ready to begin
the final science
campaign of the Osiris-rex
prime mission.
So with that,
I'll turn it back over
to Patrick.
Excellent.
Thank you for wrapping
that up, Dante.
Thank you to all the panelists.
Let's get to some questions
again in the room here.
Please raise your hand
if you have a question.
So feel will get
microphone around to you.
And if I
don't see any off the bat,
go go up here.
So for you
and for those on the phone,
please press star
one to get in the queue.
We will get to you shortly.
Thanks. Hi.
I'm you know, Katie
for Kyodo News,
the Japanese news agency.
My question is,
you are going
to exchange the samples
with a JAXA or HAYABUSA2 team
and what is
please explain a little bit
about the
importance of studying
two similar about
different asteroids
rather than just one.
And what you are
looking forward
to seeing
through
the international cooperation.
Thank you.
I'll start.
Maybe Melissa
might want to say
something as well,
but I want to say
we've had an
amazing partnership
with our Japanese colleagues
and the Hayabusa2 mission.
We recognized early on that
we were much stronger together
and that the science return
was going to be
exponentially larger
by having these two asteroids
to compare and contrast
with each other.
So the Hayabusa2 mission
went to an asteroid named Yutu.
It actually looks a lot
like Bennu.
It's got that what
we call the Spheroidal
or spinning
top shape
is these fluids
made out of rocks and gravel.
And we exchanged
lessons learned.
We work together
defining our science programs.
Rich and I and colleagues
went out to visit
JAXA to talk to them
about how their
sampling events went
and take that information
back to us.
And already
the Dugas
samples have provided
amazing insights
into the origin
of the solar system.
And I'll say when I saw
what Hayabusa2 brought back,
I was like, okay,
that's really similar
to the kind of material
we have.
But structurally
these asteroids
look very different.
So it actually made me
think, Well,
what exactly are we bring back?
We might be bringing back
something we haven't seen
in our meteorite collections.
And actually that's
what I'm really getting
excited about.
Maybe Melissa want to talk
about the interagency
cooperation.
So again,
as I mentioned before,
Nasser really
wants to be a part
of a global partnership
that does exactly what
Dante says.
We work with our partners.
We're stronger together.
We cannot do anything alone.
I think we all know that.
And to just play on that,
two different asteroids
that may photograph
and look a little bit
the same can be very,
very different.
And with my history
of Meteorite X,
I,
I think the thing
that would make me the happiest
is if we have something
totally different
and you can have two meteorites
that look identical
and can be very,
very different.
And so it's so exciting
to be working with
both the Japanese
and the Canadians.
And we want to be stronger
together
to investigate
these big problems
and where we came from.
Okay.
Take our next question
from the floor
right at the back
where we find a
hello, I'm
Justin Davenport
from NASA's space Flight.
We all know what happened
to the Genesis
sample return mission
had it's had issues
getting back down.
What have you learned
since them, Ben, that
you've been able to
apply to this mission?
We I'll take that one.
We have learned
a lot from Genesis, right?
Every success
and every failure has lessons
learned.
We are very confident
that we've take the lessons
learned forward
from Genesis into Osiris-rex.
We have done an extensive
test program
on our sample return capsule
before we launch it
and continue to look very deep
inside of the capsule
to make sure we understand
absolutely everything
that's in there.
Now, sample return
missions are hard.
There's a number of things
that can go wrong.
Our ground
recovery team is ready for
any scenario that is to happen.
We fully expect
that sample return capsule
to land
very gently on its
main parachute.
They are prepared
in the event that it is not
an okay, let's take a
go ahead and keep raising
your hands.
Will move the microphone
in the room.
Next question
we're going to take
from the phone line,
Marcia Dunn
from the Associated Press.
You are up. Go ahead.
Do you hear me there?
Yes. Coming in now.
Go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
Um, probably for Don t
I'm not sure.
You mentioned
250 grams
anticipated coming back.
I keep reading about a couple
of the mature debris,
um, rubble
filling up
with about 250 grams.
Still about one cup,
maybe more.
And what do you think
is the most
that could be coming back
in samples?
I heard 67,000 miles, I think
at the time of release
of the sample container.
Um, is that the closest
that Osiris-rex
will actually come to Earth
or does it
get any closer than that?
And lastly,
when will this science
campaign begin?
Might it begin
by the end of the year? Thanks.
Yeah,
I think I'll take the first
and the last question
and turn it over to Sandy
or Rich for the attitude
spacecraft attitude question.
So the 203
grams is a little over
eight ounces, which is a cup.
It really
of course
the volume
depends on the density,
but we think Bennu
is really low density material.
Just for reference, a rock
that you would find,
say, out here in the Utah
desert, about 3000 kilograms
per cubic meter.
The bulk bennu asteroid
is about one third of that,
which is just above
that of liquid water,
which is a shockingly
low density
for geologic material.
And then when we looked at
what happened
when we made contact with
the asteroid surface,
it was about half that.
The area where we contacted
the BENNU was about 500.
So one sixth
the density
of your average rock.
So a cup is a
good visual assessment.
Of course,
we don't know how
the material going to respond
in the gravity
field of the earth
and it may compact,
but based on what we know
about the bulk density of bennu
and the mass
that we estimate
that we've collected,
that's roughly of order
of one cup
in terms of
when the science campaign
is going to start.
I'm obviously pushing
for as fast as possible.
And the good news is
we've worked
with our colleagues
at Johnson Space Center
to identify the ability
to sample
very quickly in the processing.
When we stowed
the Tagsam device
inside the return capsule,
it was leaking material.
It was a moment
where we
rallied, overcame the obstacles
and safely got
the material stowed away.
But there's probably particles
that are moving around
inside the science canister.
So any dust that's visible
as soon as we open up
the canister,
which might be as early as
September 26,
there's going to be a sample
like a wipe taken.
And that material
is immediately
being delivered to a quick
look analysis team
ready at Johnson Space Center,
which in addition
to having a curation facility,
actually has an amazing
sample analysis
suite of instruments as well.
And we're going to get busy.
University of Arizona
researchers,
Nassau researchers.
We have colleagues
from the Smithsonian,
from Purdue University.
They're going to be ready
to receive that sample
and get us
an immediate assessment.
And I'm want to know, did Bennu
trick us again?
Is it
what we're expecting
or are we looking at something
completely unanticipated?
And as a scientist,
that's kind of what you hope
for, right?
Because that's
where the real
secrets are unlocked.
And I don't know who wants
to take the question
about the attitude
of the spacecraft.
Yeah, the spacecraft found it
divert maneuvers,
divert maneuver
targets, a flyby of Earth
about 800 kilometers.
That will set it up
on a path
around the sun
and will be making maneuvers
in the months
after, after the divert
to target our next
our next target,
which is the asteroid
Apophis for extended mission,
which will rendezvous
in 2029 with.
Okay, great.
Let's take our
next question from the phone
and then we'll go
to the floor next.
So I believe
Gina Sunseri from ABC News,
you are up next
and go ahead
with your question.
Thank you.
This is for Dante.
Could you
talk for me quickly
what the nail biting
moments are for you guys? Yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
it's been amazing
to look back on this journey
and, you know,
I ask myself,
how many heart pounding moments
can you have in one lifetime?
Because I feel like I might
be hitting my limit.
To me,
of course, it's
the go no go pole.
I've already voted
for the record.
It's go from the PI.
So that's
literally on the record.
They don't they don't pull me.
They know my opinion,
but there's human safety
and I understand.
That's why I have Rich
as the project manager
to make that that call.
And I trust him
implicitly to do that for us.
So of course,
if we don't
release the capsule,
then there's no work to do here
on the ground
and we're waiting two years.
There's an opportunity in 2025.
It's risky.
We have to get close to the sun
beyond what we tested
the spacecraft to do.
We don't want to do that.
We want to release
that capsule.
And then it has to be separate
from the spacecraft.
There's some action.
There's cables
that need to be cut
and a mechanism
that pushes and spins
the spacecraft out
that has to work properly.
And then, of course, we have to
deploy the
parachute, and that requires
batteries to be d
passive aided.
We'll have information
before we release
the spacecraft.
And it was great
to watch the drop test today.
It was just like a little sneak
preview
of that emotional moment.
As soon as I see that
parachute unfurl,
I know we made it.
We made it
to the surface of the earth.
We've achieved that mission
success criteria to safely
get that sample
down to the ground.
And at that point,
I think it's all downhill
from there.
Everything we've rehearsed,
getting out of the field,
getting it to the clean,
getting it on an airplane,
getting into the curation lab,
I think that at that point it's
just fun and games
and sample science.
Okay, great.
Take our next question
from the floor right here.
So if he has a microphone
and if you could
state your name
and if you know who
the question's for,
go ahead and direct
you to that.
I do.
Thank you, Chris.
Cookie knows I'm
writing for Astronomy magazine.
Actually,
I have a couple of questions.
One, I think for Sandy
and then
a question or two for Dante.
For Sandy.
Can can you talk about
or whomever
can you talk about
when you were getting the
the sample return canister
into that cargo net or what
are you wrapping it with?
What are you
sort of putting it in?
Or does it
just go into the cargo net?
Yeah, it is wrapped in bags.
You have the exact material
for Operation Teflon bags.
Yeah.
Before it's placed into a
handling fixture
that is
then hooked to the long line
from helicopter.
Right. Awesome. And then
for Dante, are we.
Are you
planning on
being one of the people
carrying it?
I won't touch the hardware.
Okay.
That's Lockheed Martin's job,
and that's
their responsibility.
They're responsible
for actually
transporting it all
the way to NASA's
Johnson Space Center
and even opening it up.
And at that point, it's
handed over to JSC
and it becomes part of the
the collection.
I'm there
to document
the environment, right?
We our goal is to bring back
pristine asteroidal material.
Right.
And pristine
means that nothing
that gets introduced
that's not from the
asteroid hampers
our ability
to analyze the material.
One way you overcome that
because we're out
in the desert, it might be wet,
it might be muddy
when the dust blown material.
Some of that may make its way
into the collection.
It's unlikely,
but we want this contamination
knowledge collection.
If we see something that looks
really unexpected.
Like one thing I noticed out
there was
there were snail shells
right where we were rehearsing.
I was like,
we found a snail shell
in the collection.
We might want to say,
Could that have come from Utah?
Right?
We don't want to publish
our science papers
unless we're really,
really sure.
So it allows you to eliminate
false positives, remove blanks
from your chemical analyzes,
and have that information.
So I'm out there with members
of the curation team
in the science team
to make sure we get the samples
that we want
for that information. Okay.
And then just lastly,
how hydrous is Bennu?
I mean,
is there any chance
that there might be
some interesting
biotic or even almost
biotic chemistry?
I mean, is that the kind of.
Yeah, sure.
You scenario
appears to be heavily hydrated
and we have an instrument
on there
it's called
the over years instrument.
It was built by
our team members
at Goddard Space Flight Center
and it looked across
wavelengths in the infrared
beyond what human eyes can see.
And there's a drop in signal
on a long wavelength
that is very indicative of
water molecules.
And you might think, Well,
this thing's in the inner solar
system, it's
a near-Earth asteroid.
The surface is way
too hot for liquid water
or for icy water.
It's inside clay minerals.
It's locked inside
a crystal structure.
My estimate is about 10%
by weight of
the asteroid is water,
and maybe 5 to 10%
by weight is carbon.
These are, you know, my bets.
We're going
to have to analyze it
to see how well we did
with the instruments.
And that's one of our science
objectives in terms
of could it have
biotic material
that's a vanishingly
small probability.
We worked hard with NASA's
planetary protection
officer to evaluate that
we're unrestricted
earth return.
We're not doing
biohazard containment
or anything like that
because that risk is
is vanishingly small.
But we do think that
there may have been
evolution
of the organic molecules
that could give you insights
into the initial stages
of the origin of life.
One of the things we see
on the asteroid
that we haven't
seen in the samples
and we haven't seen in
our meteorite
are hydrothermal
mineral deposits, long
veins of salty materials.
That suggests
a hydrothermal system
very much like what
we at the deep ocean
mid-ocean ridge,
what we call alkaline
hydrothermal vents,
which is a key environment
where we think origin of life
chemistry may have started.
So what I want to know is
how do you go from
a simple carbon
molecule like methane,
which is a natural gas
to something like amino acid,
which makes our proteins
are a nucleic acid,
which makes up our
genetic material.
So we're looking for anything
that might get
you down the pathway
to a biomolecular system.
Okay, great.
Let's take
a next question from the phone,
and then after that,
we'll go to the floor.
So if you have
a question here in the room,
go ahead and raise your hand.
But our next question
from the phone
from Marina Koren
from The Atlantic. Go ahead.
Hi, I'm with The Atlantic.
Can you describe
the immediate action
that would be taken
in the event of a crash landing
like the top
three, five actions
and then let's say
there was a crash landing.
Is there any scenario in which
some of the samples
could be preserved
and be scientifically useful,
or would it all
be considered contaminated?
Thank you.
I take the first part
to second. Sure.
So like I mentioned,
the team is prepared
for a hard landing scenario.
The first thing is,
of course, human safety.
So we'll need to approach
the sample return capsule.
We know there is
unfired ordinates
or there may be unfired
ordnance.
In that scenario,
you need to assess
the state of the hardware
on the ground
to make sure that it is safe
for people to approach what
protective equipment
that they need.
After that,
the priority moves to
bulk sample safety.
And if we can
save the bulk sample,
how quickly
we can get that underneath
some sort of purge.
So sorry about, you know,
so we have the Tagsam,
which was that that disk
like device basically
kind of an air filter
where the bulk sample is inside
inside an aluminum canister,
which then has the heat shield
and the back
shell on top of it.
So it would
really depend on the situation
and how we see the state
of that hardware.
But the goal is to get
the canister and the tagsam
as quickly as possible
into the clean room
at the building
here at the UTR,
and then survey the environment
to see
if there were some escapees,
if some particles got out
onto the Utah desert surface.
And we have a very detailed
plan, will grit out
the whole area
and painstakingly
go through and evaluate
all the material,
probably collect
a lot of Utah surface material
because we know
we can still
extract information.
We may lose
some of the more
delicate compounds,
but these things
make it to the earth
as meteorites.
So they're still going
to be valuable science to do,
even in the event
that, you know,
the stuff of my nightmares,
that the capsule,
that parachute doesn't open
and we're in the hard
landing
contingency, fortunately
have a backup team member
who will help me
with the emotional state
and also probably be the one
I send out there
to go deal with it.
But we've got a great plan.
Curation team is ready.
They've got the equipment.
We've got a breach team
which actually Kevin is on.
So you might want to talk
a little bit
about what
you'll be doing to get ready
for that scenario.
Yeah, well,
I wanted to first
just say that that's one reason
those sorts of scenarios
are one reason
to have a clean room
established here.
So we're ready
to work on the sample
in that in that
unexpected step
in a clean environment,
safe environment,
and have the time to do things
correctly and
and in a
as least contamination
environment as possible.
But we do, yes, we do have
plans to have a
breach team out
staged at the edge
of the landing ellipse.
And that breach team
will be able to go out
and make an assessment
of the landing area,
coordinate with folks back here
in this area
to try to get people out
there, get supplies.
They'll have contingency
supplies ready to go and staged
and get them out there
as fast as possible.
Okay, great.
Thanks.
Take a next question
from the floor,
the back of the room. Go ahead.
Thank you.
My name is Spencer.
I'm a reporter with Fox
13 News here in Salt Lake City.
Welcome to Utah,
everyone who's not from here.
But my questions
mostly for Dante
or anyone else
who like to answer this.
You mentioned
you wanted to be out there
and greet the sample back
home, greet it to Earth,
almost like you're
greeting a child.
Is that just
because you've been around this
for so long,
you saw it launch
and you want to greet it back?
Or is it
something more
that you have this physical,
emotional connection
to this mission
and to the sample?
What drives that affection
towards this
mission and the sample
that's being brought back?
There's a lot of emotions
involved right now.
Um, you know,
when you think
about the journey,
how much I've learned,
how much I've grown,
the people that I've worked
with, the amazing team.
I mean, the best
part of the program
is the team,
the people,
the camaraderie,
the unifying
that Osiris-rex provides.
So there's just emotion
if the spacecraft
carries emotion for sure.
And yeah,
but let me just finish.
So, Ben,
Ben is like an old friend,
right at this point.
You know,
even though it's a trickster,
it likes to play
jokes on us,
it likes to challenge us.
We thrive on that.
And I really feel a connection
to this asteroid,
and it's holding these clues.
And I think
it wants us to study.
I think it wants us to unravel
this mystery,
to explore
these giant questions.
So, yeah, I,
I just felt like
I had to be there.
I just had to see the program,
the flight program
of the prime mission.
Come to a close.
Yeah.
And as I said, I'll add to it
because before I became
the program executive,
I was the deputy
program scientist
for the mission.
This is the mission
that I always say
was meant for me
because I've participated
in research
in almost every aspect
of this mission,
except for, I think, one.
I started out
as an observational astronomer.
I went into
theoretical astrophysics
and meteoritic
and studying meteorites
that were very much like this.
And I've worked with the people
that are on this team
on both the science side
and the engineering side,
and this amazing team
that has pulled off
so many miracles.
And to have that bonding event
for a decade,
for me, decades for Don Day,
you can see how emotional
I got even at the beginning,
just thinking of
the culmination,
but yet still the beginning
of what we'll find out.
And so it's hard
to remove
the attached in and emotion
when you've been a part
of something so wonderful.
Yeah.
Let me let me just
say one other thing.
Right
where you stand
on the shoulders of our team
and our team has excelled
at every step of this,
every challenge
that we've asked
and that Bennu
has demanded of them.
And one thing that we
tend to do
is anthropomorphize
the spacecraft, right?
Remember when we tagged,
remember when we orbited?
We're not on the spacecraft,
right?
Kids say,
are you anybody
on that spacecraft?
Well, a little bit of us
is on that spacecraft
and a little bit of us
is coming home with that.
And it is very emotional.
Great. Thanks.
I think we have
another question from the floor
right here
and then we'll go
back to the phone line.
Hi. Good afternoon, Jeff.
Pair with the Salt
Lake Tribune.
Again, welcome to Utah.
Melissa Rich,
this is for the two of you.
The well of conflict
and problems here on Earth
is nearly endless
and expensive.
So what makes going out
and touching bennu worth it?
And like,
what do we get out of it?
Not just as NASA and Americans,
but humanity.
I can take that
first if you want.
First of all,
Utah is one of
my favorite places.
So it's always great
to be here.
I absolutely love it.
To answer your question,
first of all,
we're a great country.
We can do more than one thing.
Great countries can do that.
But on a more personal note,
I used to teach astronomy,
and I would tell my students,
you know,
what makes us different
from every other creature
on Earth
is the ability to look up.
I think
I do have a desert spiny
lizard who might do this, but
to look up and wonder
and want to explore
and to understand.
And I think that is
a fundamental need of humans.
I think it is is important
and can be as important
as some of the other things
that you mentioned.
And so I think it is
what keeps us going,
what helps us overcome
more difficult problems
at times
is that
ability to come together,
diverse personalities,
different motives,
and come together as a team
to achieve something great.
And I think that's what makes
it worth it.
Yeah, I think
that's very well said. Right.
And I think
when when we stop exploring
as a country,
as a civilization,
we stop growing, right?
We start coming together.
We find ways to come together.
Through this process,
we executed TAG
and we didn't even talk much
about COVID.
We did the hardest part
of this mission
in the depth of culture right?
And it really showed.
It was
it was a really positive story
in the middle
of a very dark time.
So I think
all those things together
make it well worth it
very much.
Okay, Melissa,
go to a couple questions
from the phone.
Our next question
is from Alex Whitley
from Nature magazine.
Your line is open.
Go ahead.
Great.
Thanks very much.
My question is for Dante.
You talked about the pace
at which science would be done,
but can you talk about
how results
are going to be made public?
Like how quickly will we get
publicly the information
that you're getting
in the science back room?
Can you talk a little bit
more granularly
about what
and how you expect
to roll stuff out?
And I just want
to put in a plug
for as much as possible
early on,
even if it's tentative. Please.
You bet.
Thanks, Alex.
Great to hear from you.
And I agree, I'm
all about
getting the information
and the excitement
out to the American taxpayers.
Thank you.
Because you are paying for this
and you deserve to know
as quickly as possible.
We're doing.
And for the world.
We have partners in Japan,
we have partners in Canada
and partners in France
and all over the
world, Australia
and so
we'll have a press conference
right now
scheduled for October 11th,
where we'll be giving the
what we've learned over
those first couple of weeks
from opening the capsule.
I'll be at the American
Geophysical Union
in December in San Francisco
with a scientific presentation.
We expect, you know,
we're working great
with the Nassau comms team.
Thank you for
organizing this amazing event.
And they want to
tell the story, right?
They're always saying,
what can we say?
What do we want it
what do we want
to put out there?
And so I'm really dedicated
that I expect
I'll have a first paper
written by the end of the year.
That's my goal right now,
and that will be
a basic description.
And also testing the hypothesis
about how well did
we predict the sample.
One of the big parts
of the mission is
we look at these asteroids
with telescopes,
some of them
with these spacecraft.
But you're always trying
to figure out what exactly is
it made out of.
You don't it, in your lab,
you don't have it in your hand.
So we want to understand how
well we did.
And that's
what my paper will focus on.
We'll have follow on papers
from our mission
sample science test. Dr.
Harold Connolly
from Rowan University
telling us about
the general nature
of the rock types
that we're seeing
and how it fits into the
other hypotheses
that we're testing.
And then we have
a series of papers
we're expecting to publish
from our working group leads,
and we're hoping
to have those submitted in
the first quarter of 2024.
Thank you.
I think we have time
for one more question.
We're going to go to the phone.
Jeff Foust with Spacenews.
You're up next in
your line is open. Go ahead.
All right.
Oh, good afternoon.
A question for Rich Burns.
You mentioned the
criteria for the go
no go decision
for the capsule release.
I wonder if you could outline
any sort of scenarios
that might lead you
to make a no go decision
and what sort of
contingency plans
you would have
in those scenarios.
I know Dante mentioned
the possibility
of coming back around
in a couple of years
and trying again. Thanks.
Yeah, that's right.
So one of those scenarios is
if we had a problem
with our
sequence of maneuvers
leading up to the release,
and that would cause us to,
you know,
if we were projecting
that we're going to land
outside of our prescribed
landing area,
we would make a no go decision
for safety reasons.
So you're right.
You heard correctly,
we do have an opportunity,
as I said, to divert, maneuver
or put the spacecraft
and we decide to hold
on to the capsule.
It will
it will remain
with the spacecraft.
Spacecraft will fly past
Earth, be on orbit
around the sun
and in two years time,
we can have another opportunity
to target the Utah
Test and Training Range.
Okay.
Thank you.
I want to say one last thing
I failed to mention.
I want to extend my
thanks and gratitude
all our
thanks and gratitude
to our wonderful
military partners
here at at the Utah Test
and Training Range and Dugway.
They've been excellent.
We would
we couldn't do this
without them,
not just because this
is an amazing place,
but because their hospitality
and their cooperation
and the level of expertise,
competence and just
cooperation,
sense of cooperation
and spirit of cooperation
has been extraordinary.
And we couldn't be happier
to be in partnership with them
as they are
part of the Osiris-rex team.
And that that is something
really special.
It's hard to explain
if you haven't been part of it,
but it really is
this feeling that you're part
of something
greater than yourself
and our military colleagues
are welcome
and wonderful
additions to that family.
Okay.
Thank you very
much to our panelists.
That's all the time
we have for today.
Again, let's take another
final look at that beautiful
drop test footage from earlier.
And remember, in 24 days,
you can join us to watch
the real Osiris-rex
sample return
from asteroid
BENNU
Come down here to Earth
in the Utah desert
just behind us.
In the meantime, follow
along for mission updates
on the web at nasa.gov,
slash Osiris,
Dash Rex,
and again
on the morning
of September 24th,
wherever you get
your national streams
at 10 a.m.
Eastern time,
please join us to watch
the entry, descent and landing
and recovery options
all in real time on this
historic mission.
Again, thank you to the Army
and the Air Force
not only hosting us,
but really enabling
these operations
and thank you very much.
Go to Cyrus Rex
Osiris-rex is
NASA's first asteroid
sample return mission.
It launched in September 2016
on a journey
to explore in the Earth
asteroid called Bennu.
After arriving in 2018,
Osiris-rex spent
nearly two years
with orbiting Bennu,
mapping and studying
its rugged terrain
before carrying out
its primary science objective.
On October 20th, 2020,
the spacecraft ventured
to a small crater
in the asteroid's
northern hemisphere.
It dodged jagged rocks
and towering boulders
and plunged its arm
into the loose surface,
excavating six tons of debris
while collecting
about 250 grams of material.
Osiris-rex stowed its bounty
and closed its sample
return capsule.
It bid farewell
to Bennu in May 2021,
embarking on a 1.2
billion cruise Back to Earth
Now two years and four months
after leaving Bennu,
Osiris-rex is closing in on the
place where its journey began
on September 24th.
The spacecraft will approach
to nearly
63,000 miles from Earth.
It will power up and release
its sample return capsule
at 4:42 a.m. Mountain Time.
The capsule must be jettisoned
within a narrow time frame
and at just the right angle
to hit its target
an area of roughly
250 square miles
in Utah's West Desert.
Once the capsule is away,
Osiris-rex will fire
its thrusters
to avoid colliding with Earth.
At 8:42 a.m.,
the capsule
will streak into the atmosphere
at a blistering
27,000 miles per hour.
It will race across
the western U.S.
and begin to glow with heat,
allowing infrared trackers
on the ground
to chart its progress
as it pushes
deeper into the atmosphere,
the capsule will
rapidly decelerate,
subjecting the bennu samples
to a punishing 32 GS
about 2 minutes after entry,
it will slow to Mach 1.4
and deploy
its drogue parachute.
Stabilizing its descent.
The capsule will enter
special use airspace
at 8:46 a.m.,
almost ten miles
above the department
of Defense.
Utah test and training range
radar stations will lock on
and track it to
within 30 feet
of its landing site
at 8:50 a.m.
The capsule will extract
and deploy its main parachute
one mile above the ground.
It will make its final descent.
It'll leisurely 11
miles per hour,
like a marathon runner
savoring a victory lap
before touching down in the
desert soil at 855.
After ground teams
retrieve the capsule,
the bennu samples will be taken
to nasa's Johnson Space Center
in Houston, Texas.
The sample canister
will be opened
in the Astro Materials
Acquisition
and Curation Facility.
In the samples
will be curated, distributed
and studied
for decades to come.
Having delivered its cargo,
the Osiris-rex spacecraft
will depart Earth,
but its journey
will not quite be finished.
In a daring encore,
the renamed dose
Cyrus Apex, will enter
an elliptical orbit of the sun,
repeatedly passing
within the orbit of Venus
and pushing the limits
of its thermal design.
Beginning in 2029,
it will chase down
and investigate
Apophis, a 1200 foot
stony asteroid
destined to make
an exceptionally
close flyby of Earth
after 30 years in deep space
at the start of a new decade
alone on a new world,
the journey will continue.