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OSIRIS-REx is a NASA New Frontiers mission. 
Its goal is to collect a sample of  

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asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth. 
OSIRIS-REx launched in September of 2016,  

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arrived at Bennu in late December of 2018, and has 
been studying that asteroid ever since. We are now  

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on a path to finally collect a sample of that 
asteroid having completed two of our rehearsals,  

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the two that are required: Check Point and Match Point. 
Once we get the sample in October of 2020,  

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we'll then work to depart Bennu, bring that 
sample home to Earth in September of 2023.

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Orbiting Bennu has some challenges that 
we haven't seen before when we orbit  

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larger bodies such as Mars. So, for example, we 
need to update the onboard pointing more often.  

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Also, anything that we do onboard the spacecraft 
has the potential to perturb the orbit,  

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so firing a thruster, for example, makes a big 
difference. When you're orbiting a larger body,  

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that's kind of in the noise, but when orbiting 
something as small as Bennu, if we do a desat  

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of our reaction wheels, all of those things 
need to be carefully timed and sequenced  

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so that they can be taken into account for the 
navigation solution so we can maintain our orbit.

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So, the surface of Bennu was really unexpected. 
We had expected to find large areas of sand,  

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essentially a beach. As we got to Bennu 
and took more and more pictures of it,  

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we realized that we were dealing with a very 
rocky surface that was boulders, essentially everywhere.

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So, finding a sample site was very 
difficult. We have selected Nightingale as our  

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primary site for a number of reasons. It 
does appear to have samplable material.  

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We need material to be two centimeters or less 
in order to be ingested into our TAGSAM head,  

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so the samplable material there is definitely 
key. There are some large boulders around it,  

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but we have an onboard hazard map capability which 
we can X those out. So as the spacecraft is  

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heading into the Nightingale site, if it looks 
to be coming down onto one of those hazards,  

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it will wave off at five meters and 
safely back the spacecraft away.  

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So, although there are hazards in the 
area, we're confident that we have  

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all the safeguards on board the spacecraft 
as to not encounter one of those hazards.

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So the surface of Bennu was really unexpected. We 
had expected to find large areas of sand. In fact,  

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we had essentially designed to go to a beach. 
The TAGSAM head is capable of picking up  

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particles that are two centimeters or 
less in diameter. So, when we started  

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to get those high resolution images of 
Bennu, we realized that we were dealing  

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with something that we hadn't quite designed 
for: lots of rocks, a real rugged surface.  

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That made finding a site rather challenging, 
to find a safe site yet one that had samplable  

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material. So, the project did select the 
Nightingale site which does show samplable  

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material there. There are also a large amount 
of boulders or large rocks - one that the team  

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does affectionately call Mount Doom - just on 
the outskirts of that site. However, we have an  

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onboard hazard map capability on the spacecraft. 
So, as we are descending towards our sample site,  

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if the spacecraft discovers that it is coming 
down on top of a hazard, it will do a wave off  

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at the five meter point and safely back away, 
and then we'll be able to try TAG another day.

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OSIRIS-REx really needs to be an autonomous 
spacecraft as it's out in deep space.  

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In October, when we do the TAG event, it will 
be just over 18 minutes for us to get a command  

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from Earth to the spacecraft at Bennu, another 
18 minutes for it to return information to us.  

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That is impractical for the ground to 
be in the loop during TAG operations,  

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so we need to load everything to the spacecraft 
ahead of time. Once we send the go command,  

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we're really hands off here on Earth. We're 
monitoring, but we are very confident and  

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comfortable that the spacecraft will do 
everything it needs to do and take care of itself.

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So, OSIRIS-REx is really paving the way 
for the next set of deep space exploration,  

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especially around small bodies. This is the first 
time that we've been in orbit around a small body,  

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so we've been able to learn quite a bit about 
that. This will also be the first time that  

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we've collected a sample of an asteroid from 
a United States mission and bringing that back  

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on Earth to sample. So really, we 
are making lots of new discoveries.  

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Having a sample of Bennu on the surface will 
be hugely valuable to generations to come, and  

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everything that we're learning will be able to be 
applied to a future mission to another small body.

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OSIRIS-REx really builds on some of our 
heritage from the Stardust mission which  

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was a sample return mission to comet Wild 2, 
especially with our sample return capsule.  

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That is essentially the same design that was flown on 
Stardust that is now being flown on OSIRIS-REx.

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Gosh, the most exciting aspect of the 
mission - it's really hard to choose just one.  

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This entire mission is amazing and incredible 
in terms of the things that we get to do.  

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The team that we have here at Lockheed Martin 
has been working on this mission for a number  

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of years. We have several people that work from 
development that are now flying the spacecraft,  

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so just getting to Bennu was hugely exciting. And 
finally being there, and choosing a TAG site, and  

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now having these rehearsals behind us. 
So, October 20th is going to be another  

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great milestone in this mission where I think 
the entire team is just going to be elated to  

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have finally gotten to the surface of Bennu 
and get that sample. And then, of course,  

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we're not done. We've got to bring the sample 
back to Earth. So, we'll have yet another  

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large milestone in celebration in 2023 when 
we finally get to bring parts of Bennu home.

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[Room Tone]