posted 05-01-2013 02:12 PM               

This thread is for discussion, comments and questions regarding the OSIRIS-REx mission to return samples from asteroid Bennu and the updates posted under: NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.

NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) probe to Bennu in 2016 to retrieve samples that could better explain our solar system's formation and how life began. OSIRIS-REx will be the first United States mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth.

posted 05-01-2013 02:19 PM               

The name is the winning entry in an international student contest. Michael Puzio, a nine-year-old in North Carolina, suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the like neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron.

posted 09-10-2016 10:18 PM               

(Photo credit: NASA)

The Planetary Society hosts and the NASA support personnel made the entire launch day just incredible. With the 7:05 p.m. launch the setting sun made for an interesting effect:

(Photo credit: Arizona Central)

posted 09-19-2017 09:51 AM               

Wave to OSIRIS-REx

This fall, NASA's asteroid-hunting spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, will fly by Earth and use the planet's gravitational force to slingshot itself out into space. This maneuver, known as an Earth Gravity Assist, will put OSIRIS-REx on course to visit asteroid Bennu, where it will collect a sample of some of the oldest material in the solar system. While the engineering team is busy carrying out the Earth Gravity Assist, the mission invites members the public to mark the occasion by participating in the Wave to OSIRIS-REx social media campaign.

• How to join:

  Take a picture of yourself or your group waving to OSIRIS-REx as it approaches Earth. Then share your photo using the hashtag #HelloOSIRISREx and tagging the mission account on Twitter (@OSIRISREx) or Instagram (@OSIRIS_REx). Bonus: Download these printable graphics to include in your photo.

• When:

  Start posting pictures as soon as you like, or wait until the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft makes its closest approach to Earth at 16:52 UTC/12:52 ET/9:52 PT on Friday, Sept. 22, 2017.

• Who:

  People all over the world! Science centers, air and space museums, K-12 classes, universities and other groups are also encouraged to gather a crowd for a photo during the spacecraft's flyby on Sept. 22. Planning a group photo at your facility? Let us know. Contact us.

posted 09-20-2017 08:01 PM               

Spot the Spacecraft

On Sept. 22, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will make a close approach to Earth, using the planet's gravity to slingshot itself toward the asteroid Bennu. Over the course of several days, observatories and amateur astronomers with specialized equipment will be able to see OSIRIS-REx as the spacecraft approaches and retreats from its closest position over Earth, approximately 11,000 miles (17,000 km) above the planet's surface.

The mission will collect images of OSIRIS-REx taken by observatories and other ground-based telescopes around the world during this period – approximately Sept. 10-23, depending on location and local conditions. Observers from the OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroids! citizen science program, who regularly volunteer their time to help scientists study near-Earth asteroids, will be among those who train their telescopes on the spacecraft's path.

"The opportunity to capture images of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft as it approaches Earth provides a unique challenge for observers to hone their skills during this historic flyby," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "As the spacecraft approaches Earth for its own imaging campaign, ground-based observers will also be looking up and taking photos from the opposite perspective."

Individuals and groups may submit images of the spacecraft via the mission's website, where instructions to locate the spacecraft in the sky are also available.

"The team is eager and ready to execute the Earth Gravity Assist," said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greeenbelt, Maryland. "Not only will it be a significant change in trajectory putting OSIRIS-REx on track for rendezvous with Bennu, it also represents a unique opportunity for the OSIRIS-REx instruments to observe our home planet. It is fantastic that ground based observers are also taking the opportunity to image OSIRIS-REx."

The images collected during the Earth gravity assist represent the last opportunity for Earth-based observers to see the spacecraft — until it returns to Earth in 2023 carrying a sample from asteroid Bennu.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the home institution of several OSIRIS-REx science team members, will also work with the Japan Public Observatory Society and the Planetary Society of Japan to collect imagery from vantage points in Japan.

Shortly before OSIRIS-REx reaches its closest distance from Earth, the spacecraft will fly over the eastern half of Australia, giving observers there some of the best opportunities to see and photograph the spacecraft. The Desert Fireball Network — an organization based at Curtin University, Perth, that studies meteorites, fireballs and their pre-Earth orbits—will deploy observers to locations around Australia to track OSIRIS-REx across the sky.

Members of the public without telescopes can still celebrate the Earth Gravity Assist by joining the "Wave to OSIRIS-REx" social media campaign. Individuals and groups from anywhere in the world are encouraged to take photos of themselves waving to OSIRIS-REx, share them using the hashtag #HelloOSIRISREx and tag the mission account in their posts on Twitter (@OSIRISREx) or Instagram (@OSIRIS_REx).

Participants may begin taking and sharing photos at any time — or wait until the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft makes its closest approach to Earth at 12:52 p.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 22.

posted 10-10-2017 08:33 PM               

This color composite image of Earth and the Moon was taken Oct. 2, 2017, 10 days after OSIRIS-REx performed its Earth Gravity Assist maneuver, using MapCam, the mid-range scientific camera onboard the spacecraft. The distance to Earth was approximately 3,180,000 miles (5,120,000 km) — about 13 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.

MapCam, part of the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) operated by the University of Arizona, has four color filters. To produce this image, three of them (b, v and w) were treated as a blue-green-red triplet, co-registered and stacked. The Earth and Moon were each color-corrected, and the Moon was "stretched" (brightened) to make it more easily visible.

posted 10-26-2018 11:33 AM               

Bennu Rotating at 13 Pixels

This set of images, taken with OSIRIS-REx's PolyCam camera on Oct. 23, 2018, shows three views of asteroid Bennu as it rotates over a span of five hours. At the time the images were taken, Bennu was about 1,800 miles (3,000 km) away from the spacecraft and appears about 13 pixels across in the camera’s field of view. In this set of images, the spacecraft's camera is beginning to detect noticeable differences on each side of Bennu as the asteroid rotates.

posted 11-28-2018 06:33 PM               

NASA Provides Live Coverage of Spacecraft Arrival at Asteroid That May Have Answers to the Origin of our Solar System

NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with its targeted asteroid, Bennu, on Monday, Dec. 3 at approximately noon EST.

NASA will air a live event from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. EST to highlight the arrival of the agency's first asteroid sample return mission. The program will originate from OSIRIS-REx's mission control at the Lockheed Martin Space facility in Littleton, Colorado, and will air on NASA Television, Facebook Live, Ustream, YouTube and the agency's website. NASA TV also will air an arrival preview program starting at 11:15 a.m. EST.

OSIRIS-REx launched in September 2016 and has been slowly approaching Bennu. The spacecraft will spend almost a year surveying the asteroid with five scientific instruments with the goal of selecting a location that is safe and scientifically interesting to collect the sample. OSIRIS-REx will return the sample to Earth in September 2023.

Participants in the arrival coverage event include:

• Michelle Thaller, moderator, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md
  
• Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md
  
• Heather Enos, OSIRIS-REx deputy principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson
  
• Mark Fisher, OSIRIS-REx spacecraft engineer, Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, Colo.
  
• Coralie Adam, OSIRIS-REx flight navigator, KinetX, Inc. Space Navigation and Flight Dynamics, Simi Valley, Calif.

On Dec. 3., the public may ask questions using the hashtag #askNASA on Twitter or by leaving a comment on the livestream of the event on the OSIRIS-REx Mission Facebook page.

posted 12-03-2018 11:29 AM               

Final Approach to Bennu

This set of images shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's view of Bennu during the final phase of its journey to the asteroid. From Aug. 17 through Nov. 27 the spacecraft's PolyCam camera imaged Bennu almost daily as the spacecraft traveled 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km) toward the asteroid. The final images were obtained from a distance of around 40 miles (65 km). During this period, OSIRIS-REx completed four maneuvers slowing the spacecraft's velocity from approximately 1,100 mph (491 m/sec) to 0.10 mph (0.04 m/sec) relative to Bennu, which resulted in the slower approach speed at the end of the video.

posted 12-03-2018 11:57 AM               

OSIRIS-REx Arrives at Bennu

After traveling through space for more than two years and over two billion miles, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu, on Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. The spacecraft will spend almost a year surveying the asteroid with five scientific instruments with the goal of selecting a location that is safe and scientifically interesting to collect the sample. OSIRIS-REx will return the sample to Earth in September 2023.

This series of images taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft shows Bennu in one full rotation from a distance of around 50 miles (80 km). The spacecraft's PolyCam camera obtained the thirty-six 2.2-millisecond frames over a period of four hours and 18 minutes.

posted 03-19-2019 12:49 PM               

"The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "And the rugged terrain went against all of our predictions. Bennu is already surprising us, and our exciting journey there is just getting started."

Shortly after the discovery of the particle plumes on Jan. 6, the mission science team increased the frequency of observations, and subsequently detected additional particle plumes during the following two months. Although many of the particles were ejected clear of Bennu, the team tracked some particles that orbited Bennu as satellites before returning to the asteroid's surface.

posted 09-13-2020 01:30 PM               

OSIRIS-REx is NASA's first asteroid sample return mission. Its main science goal is to collect a sample of near-Earth asteroid Bennu for return to Earth in 2023.

These animations show a size comparison of the planned sample collection area before arriving at Bennu (orange), and after arriving at Bennu (blue). The original mission plan envisioned a sample site with a diameter of 164 feet (50 m). However, the sampling region for site Nightingale is approximately 26 ft (8 m) in diameter. The area safe enough for the spacecraft to touch is the width of a few parking spaces.

posted 10-09-2020 09:20 AM               

When OSIRIS-REx reached Bennu, it spotted something strange: some of the boulders had bright veins up to 150 centimetres long and 14 centimetres thick. These veins are too large to have formed on Bennu itself, says Hannah Kaplan at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, so they were probably portions of larger cracks on Bennu's parent that were up to several kilometres long.

"They suggest that there was fluid flowing on fairly large scales on Bennu's parent asteroid," says Kaplan. That is because the veins are made of carbonates, a type of compound that generally forms due to interactions between water and rock, she says.

posted 10-14-2020 05:15 PM               

NASA to Broadcast OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Collection Activities

NASA will broadcast coverage of a first for the agency as its Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission attempts to collect a sample of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 6:12 p.m. EDT (2212 GMT).

Live coverage of the spacecraft's descent to the asteroid's surface for its "Touch-And-Go," or TAG, maneuver, which will be managed by Lockheed Martin Space near Denver, will begin at 5 p.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Beginning with an orbit departure maneuver around 1:50 p.m. EDT, the full sequence of the complicated engineering feat will be covered on @OSIRISREx, and the public can ask questions using the hashtag #ToBennuandBack.

In addition to the broadcast Tuesday, Oct. 20, briefings and social media activities will cover the mission and asteroid science on Monday, Oct. 19.

OSIRIS-REx, which is about the size of a 15-passenger van, is currently orbiting the asteroid Bennu 200 million miles from Earth. Bennu contains material from the early solar system and may contain the molecular precursors to life and Earth's oceans. The asteroid is about as tall as the Empire State Building and could potentially threaten Earth late in the next century, with a 1‐in‐2,700 chance of impacting our planet during one of its close approaches. OSIRIS-REx is now ready to take a sample of this ancient relic of our solar system and bring its stories and secrets home to Earth.

Full mission coverage and participants (all times Eastern):

Monday, Oct. 19

• 1 p.m. – Asteroid Science and Planetary Defense media teleconference

• 3 p.m. – OSIRIS-REx Science and Engineering media teleconference

• 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. - Live Social Media Question-and-Answer Session, airing on NASA TV

Tuesday, Oct. 20

• 1:20 to 6:30 p.m. – Live stream animation displaying OSIRIS-REx's sample collection activities in real time. The animation commences with the spacecraft's slew into position for the Orbit Departure Maneuver and runs through the entire sequence of TAG events, concluding after the spacecraft's back-away burn. Event will be broadcast on the mission's website.

• 5 to 6:30 p.m. – Live broadcast from Lockheed Martin of OSIRIS-REx's descent to the surface of Bennu and attempt at sample collection.

  Hosted by Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, and Michelle Thaller, science communicator at Goddard, the broadcast will cover milestones in the last 90 minutes leading up to TAG and spacecraft back-away. It will include perspectives from team members and science leaders about the mission's challenges and accomplishments.

Wednesday, Oct. 21

• 5 p.m. – Post-sampling news conference – and release of new images

• 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. – A NASA Science Live episode will air with team members answering live questions from the public about TAG, OSIRIS-REx, and asteroid science. Use #ToBennuAndBack to participate.

Virtual NASA Social

NASA also will host a #ToBennuAndBack Virtual NASA Social. RSVP to the Facebook event for social media updates. NASA Social participants will get a chance to:

• Connect virtually with like-minded space enthusiasts as we prepare for TAG
  
• Receive a NASA Social badge to share online or print at home
  
• Virtually tour the asteroid Bennu
  
• Access the broadcast and other activities around TAG

By applying to the group, participants are explicitly agreeing to the group's rules as set forth by NASA. All membership questions must be answered to be accepted to the group.

posted 10-20-2020 09:18 AM               

Tune in to our live broadcast as our spacecraft descends to the surface of asteroid Bennu, touches down for a few seconds and attempts to capture regolith (rocks and dust) using a "Touch-And-Go," or TAG, maneuver.

The spacecraft must target Bennu's rocky surface with great accuracy, touching down within a rocky area just 52 feet (16 meters) in diameter. During the maneuver, the spacecraft and the asteroid will be approximately 207 million miles (334 million km) from Earth.

Live coverage from Lockheed Martin's facility in Denver, Colorado, with mission managers from the University of Arizona, Lockheed Martin, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center begins at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).

posted 10-21-2020 03:52 PM               

Yesterday, Oct. 20, our OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descended to the surface of asteroid Bennu, touched down and attempted to capture a sample using a "Touch-And-Go," or TAG, maneuver.

Join us at 5 p.m. EDT for a live broadcast with the mission team, as they provide a recap of yesterday's journey and reveal first images and videos of this historic event.

posted 05-10-2021 03:24 PM               

On Monday, May 10, the OSIRIS-REx mission bids farewell to near-Earth asteroid Bennu. At 4:16 p.m., the spacecraft fired its main thrusters to begin its long journey home, carrying precious asteroid material that it will return to Earth in 2023.

posted 09-24-2023 08:27 AM               

Watch a spacecraft deliver an asteroid sample to Earth! Our OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) spacecraft is approaching Earth, and on Sept. 24, 2023, it will release its sample return capsule into the atmosphere on a path to land at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range.

The touchdown will mark the end of a seven-year journey to explore asteroid Bennu, collect a sample from its surface, and deliver it to Earth as the U.S’s first pristine asteroid sample. Scientists around the world will study the sample over the coming decades to learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.

posted 09-24-2023 03:58 PM               

Mission experts recap the touchdown of OSIRIS-REx, which earlier today delivered America's first pristine sample of rocks and dust from an asteroid.

posted 09-25-2023 04:42 PM               

We expect to have an estimate of the bulk sample within about a week. It may take us two or three weeks to have the highest precision measurement.

posted 09-26-2023 07:01 PM               

NASA scientists found black dust and debris on the avionics deck of the OSIRIS-REx science canister when the initial lid was removed today (Sept. 26).