OSIRIS-REx is a NASA New Frontiers mission. Its goal is to collect a sample of
asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth. OSIRIS-REx launched in September of 2016,
arrived at Bennu in late December of 2018, and has been studying that asteroid ever since. We are now
on a path to finally collect a sample of that asteroid having completed two of our rehearsals,
the two that are required: Check Point and Match Point. Once we get the sample in October of 2020,
we'll then work to depart Bennu, bring that sample home to Earth in September of 2023.
Orbiting Bennu has some challenges that we haven't seen before when we orbit
larger bodies such as Mars. So, for example, we need to update the onboard pointing more often.
Also, anything that we do onboard the spacecraft has the potential to perturb the orbit,
so firing a thruster, for example, makes a big difference. When you're orbiting a larger body,
that's kind of in the noise, but when orbiting something as small as Bennu, if we do a desat
of our reaction wheels, all of those things need to be carefully timed and sequenced
so that they can be taken into account for the navigation solution so we can maintain our orbit.
So, the surface of Bennu was really unexpected. We had expected to find large areas of sand,
essentially a beach. As we got to Bennu and took more and more pictures of it,
we realized that we were dealing with a very rocky surface that was boulders, essentially everywhere.
So, finding a sample site was very difficult. We have selected Nightingale as our
primary site for a number of reasons. It does appear to have samplable material.
We need material to be two centimeters or less in order to be ingested into our TAGSAM head,
so the samplable material there is definitely key. There are some large boulders around it,
but we have an onboard hazard map capability which we can X those out. So as the spacecraft is
heading into the Nightingale site, if it looks to be coming down onto one of those hazards,
it will wave off at five meters and safely back the spacecraft away.
So, although there are hazards in the area, we're confident that we have
all the safeguards on board the spacecraft as to not encounter one of those hazards.
So the surface of Bennu was really unexpected. We had expected to find large areas of sand. In fact,
we had essentially designed to go to a beach. The TAGSAM head is capable of picking up
particles that are two centimeters or less in diameter. So, when we started
to get those high resolution images of Bennu, we realized that we were dealing
with something that we hadn't quite designed for: lots of rocks, a real rugged surface.
That made finding a site rather challenging, to find a safe site yet one that had samplable
material. So, the project did select the Nightingale site which does show samplable
material there. There are also a large amount of boulders or large rocks - one that the team
does affectionately call Mount Doom - just on the outskirts of that site. However, we have an
onboard hazard map capability on the spacecraft. So, as we are descending towards our sample site,
if the spacecraft discovers that it is coming down on top of a hazard, it will do a wave off
at the five meter point and safely back away, and then we'll be able to try TAG another day.
OSIRIS-REx really needs to be an autonomous spacecraft as it's out in deep space.
In October, when we do the TAG event, it will be just over 18 minutes for us to get a command
from Earth to the spacecraft at Bennu, another 18 minutes for it to return information to us.
That is impractical for the ground to be in the loop during TAG operations,
so we need to load everything to the spacecraft ahead of time. Once we send the go command,
we're really hands off here on Earth. We're monitoring, but we are very confident and
comfortable that the spacecraft will do everything it needs to do and take care of itself.
So, OSIRIS-REx is really paving the way for the next set of deep space exploration,
especially around small bodies. This is the first time that we've been in orbit around a small body,
so we've been able to learn quite a bit about that. This will also be the first time that
we've collected a sample of an asteroid from a United States mission and bringing that back
on Earth to sample. So really, we are making lots of new discoveries.
Having a sample of Bennu on the surface will be hugely valuable to generations to come, and
everything that we're learning will be able to be applied to a future mission to another small body.
OSIRIS-REx really builds on some of our heritage from the Stardust mission which
was a sample return mission to comet Wild 2, especially with our sample return capsule.
That is essentially the same design that was flown on Stardust that is now being flown on OSIRIS-REx.
Gosh, the most exciting aspect of the mission - it's really hard to choose just one.
This entire mission is amazing and incredible in terms of the things that we get to do.
The team that we have here at Lockheed Martin has been working on this mission for a number
of years. We have several people that work from development that are now flying the spacecraft,
so just getting to Bennu was hugely exciting. And finally being there, and choosing a TAG site, and
now having these rehearsals behind us. So, October 20th is going to be another
great milestone in this mission where I think the entire team is just going to be elated to
have finally gotten to the surface of Bennu and get that sample. And then, of course,
we're not done. We've got to bring the sample back to Earth. So, we'll have yet another
large milestone in celebration in 2023 when we finally get to bring parts of Bennu home.
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