<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In his <\/span>Your Place in Space<\/span><\/i> feature printed in <\/span>The Planetary Report\u2019s <\/span><\/i>June Solstice 2023 edition, Bill Nye opened this special OSIRIS-REx issue with some reflections about the probe\u2019s seven year journey.\u00a0 As the president of The Planetary Society, Nye wanted to remind all the Society\u2019s members that, \u201cYou share in missions like OSIRIS-REx.\u00a0 You help make them happen.\u00a0 You help these missions get funded, stay funded, and make it to the launch pad.\u00a0 You also help spread awareness of these amazing missions and the things they teach us about the Cosmos, inviting new people to experience the joy of exploration and discovery.\u201d\u00a0 Does Nye sound a little excited about this mission?\u00a0 Granted, having watched enough episodes of <\/span>Bill Nye the Science Guy<\/span><\/i> (his long-running show aimed at kids but educational for adults, also) has shown me that he \u00a0 gets excited about all things science.\u00a0 As the President of the PS, Nye manages to hold onto that excitement even when it takes a long time for a mission to be planned, executed, and evaluated.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The return of OSIRIS-REx on September 24, 2023 makes this the right time to review why Bill Nye is so excited about a mission originally launched on September 8, 2016.\u00a0 For the record, OSIRIS-REx is the shortened version of the probe’s full name:\u00a0 the <\/span>O<\/span>rigins <\/span>S<\/span>pectral<\/span> I<\/span>nterpretation <\/span>R<\/span>esource<\/span> I<\/span>dentification, <\/span>S<\/span>ecurity-<\/span>R<\/span>egolith <\/span>Ex<\/span>plorer.\u00a0 Yes, that is a mouthful, thus we will keep referring to it as either OSIRIS-REx or just O-REx.\u00a0 The mission to the asteroid Bennu was accomplished in several stages.\u00a0 After it was launched, O-REx began the journey by swinging past the Earth on September 17, 2017.\u00a0 This gave the probe a gravitational boost to give it more\u00a0 speed for the long trip.\u00a0 The craft arrived at Bennu on December 3, 2018 where it began orbiting the asteroid for 505 Earth days (a year and a half).\u00a0 During this time, it took pictures for mission controllers back on Earth who used them to find a suitable place to perform what Nye calls \u2018a robotic arm scoop-up\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The asteroid Bennu\u2019s name (actually, it is formally known as 101955 Bennu) was coined in 2013 by a nine-year old North Carolina boy named Mike Puzio.\u00a0 As a third grader, he entered a \u2018name the asteroid contest\u2019 co-sponsored by The Planetary Society and the LINEAR asteroid survey (who had first discovered it).\u00a0 Though it was originally called \u20181999 RQ 36\u2019, Puzio suggested \u2018Bennu\u2019 because he thought the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (or TAGSAM) (more on that in a bit) resembled the neck and wings of a gray heron, a bird often depicted in ancient Egyptian art.\u00a0 To the Egyptians, Bennu was the living symbol of Osiris.\u00a0 The shape of the asteroid also resembles an egg and Puzio\u2019s suggested name connected enough dots to be picked over the thousands of other entries sent in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nye further explained some of the mission\u2019s elements as follows:\u00a0 \u201cThe O is OSIRIS stands for Origins – our origins.\u00a0 Asteroids come in a variety of types with a variety of characteristics.\u00a0 Bennu, believed to have formed at the very beginning of our Solar System, has a great deal of carbon.\u00a0 That suggests it may have organic compounds, which in turn suggests it may have some of the fundamental molecules found in the organisms that are alive today.\u00a0 If we can find organic molecules aboard this species of asteroid, it may have remarkable implications about the origin of living things – like us.\u00a0 The S in OSIRIS stands for Security.\u00a0 We want to learn about the orbits of objects like Bennu so we can prepare in case there\u2019s one incoming.\u00a0 We want our home to be secure.\u00a0 Stay tuned.\u00a0 Bennu has a slim chance of impacting Earth in the year 2182.\u00a0 With this mission, we\u2019ll learn more about asteroids and their orbits and how they may cross ours someday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Planetary Society members (and others) were offered an opportunity to join OSIRIS-REx on the journey to Bennu and back.\u00a0 On board, it carries a microchip encoded with the names of the 442,803 who responded to the offer.\u00a0 Somewhere in my archives I have a certificate stating that my name was included in this chip.\u00a0 Whenever an offer like this came up to \u2018join\u2019 a space exploration mission, I passed it along to my students so there may very well be a few more names with an Ontonagon County connection on board.\u00a0 Why does the PS have this longstanding tradition of collecting names to send aboard spacecraft?\u00a0 As Nye points out, \u201cWe want to emphasize the fact that everyone on this planet has a role to play in space exploration and that when a mission heads out into the Cosmos, we go with it in spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bennu is what is known as a \u2018rubble-pile\u2019 asteroid.\u00a0 This means it isn\u2019t exactly a solid object.\u00a0 Bennu (and two other asteroids previously visited by probes from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) called Ryugu and Itokawa) consists of chunks of rock bound together gravitationally.\u00a0 It is thought these rubble-pile objects are formed when the pieces of a larger asteroid destroyed in a collision come together.\u00a0 When these pieces reassemble into another asteroid, the mass isn\u2019t great enough to generate enough gravitational pull to solidify the particles.\u00a0 As Kate Howelis writes in <\/span>The Planetary Report, \u201c<\/span><\/i>Since Planets, moons, and asteroids have to all start from such smaller collections of material, rubble-pile asteroids might shed insights on the early stages of planetary formation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bennu orbits the Sun every 1.2 years and every six years, it makes its closest approach to Earth\u2019s orbit passing some 186,000 miles from us.\u00a0 When O-REx began orbiting the asteroid on December 31, 2018, it started mapping the surface so mission control could pick out potential sampling sites.\u00a0 The first attempt to collect material from Bennu came on October 20, 2020.\u00a0 Dante Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator told <\/span>The Planetary Reporter, <\/span><\/i>\u201cWhat surprised us was how loosely packed and fragile the surface was.\u00a0 When the spacecraft made contact, it sank like two feet deep.\u00a0 The robotic arm just plowed through with no resistance whatsoever.\u00a0 It was shocking to us.\u00a0 And we realized the material is very weak and breaks apart incredibly easily.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Two previous JAXA missions to collect material fired a projectile into the asteroids and collected particles ejected from the resultant crater.\u00a0 O-REx used a different technique that allowed it to collect a larger sample than either JAXA probe.\u00a0 The O-REx Touch-and-Go method used a burst of nitrogen gas to stir up material that was then collected with the robotic arm.\u00a0 The goal of collecting at least 2 ounces was easily met even though it carried three additional nitrogen canisters in case the first pass was unsuccessful.\u00a0 According to Space.com, O-REx was an historic, record setting mission:\u00a0 Bennu is the smallest body a spacecraft has ever orbited (with a diameter of 1,640 feet) and O-REx performed the closest orbit ever of a small body, at just one mile from the surface.\u201d\u00a0 O-REx made its last flyover of Bennu on April 7, 2021 and departed on its trajectory back to Earth on May 20, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The return trip won\u2019t be like getting a FedEx or UPS delivery at your door.\u00a0 When the O-REx vehicle approaches Earth on September 23, 2023, there will be a set of complex steps that will be needed to ensure the safe return of the Bennu samples.\u00a0 When the craft is about four hours or 60,000 miles from the Earth, things will begin to happen.\u00a0 Mike Moreau, the flight dynamics system manager at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, is in charge of the team handling OSIRIS-REx\u2019s navigation.\u00a0 He explains, \u201cYou\u2019re a third of the way to the Moon, and you just have this spring that is ejecting the [sample] capsule and giving it a spin.\u00a0 We don\u2019t do anything to control it,\u00a0 It\u2019s just like a really long three-point shot.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Swapna Krishna (reporting for <\/span>The Planetary Society)<\/span><\/i> continues:\u00a0 \u201cThe sample container itself doesn\u2019t have any engines or thrusters.\u00a0 The hard work to obtain a precision landing comes in the period before that separation.\u00a0 At 14 days out from the sample return, O-Rex will fire its thrusters and perform a trajectory-correction maneuver, targeting a specific return area at the Utah Test and Training Range\u00a0 80 miles SW of Salt Lake City.\u00a0 \u201cAll the work to do the targeting is happening in those two weeks beforehand,\u201d says Moreau.\u00a0 Moreau\u2019s team has spent the last year refining their navigation programming so by the time the craft nears the sample container separation phase, only minor adjustments should be needed to ensure they hit the target.\u00a0 The landing area in question is an ellipse measuring roughly 12 by 50 miles.\u00a0 Moreau continues, \u201cIt is kind of mind boggling that you release a thing on a spring 100,000 km (approximately 160,000 miles) from the Earth\u2026and it\u2019s going through a window that\u2019s probably a couple of km (less than 2 miles) wide in the atmosphere to hit your target.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The return canister carrying the samples from Bennu is similar to the manned capsule that returned the astronauts from the Moon.\u00a0 It has a blunt end and a nose cone but at just under 1 meter (3 feet) long, it is much smaller than the manned capsule.\u00a0 Laurettta told <\/span>The Planetary Reporter, <\/span><\/i>\u201cIt\u2019s got a heat shield with the nose cone that\u2019s aerodynamically optimized for high velocity entry through the atmosphere.\u201d\u00a0 Traveling at 7.7 miles per second, it will make one of the fastest reentries in the history of space flight.\u00a0 Friction with the thickening atmosphere generates a lot of heat that the shielded blunt end will dissipate to keep the cargo inside safe.\u00a0 While the heat is being bled off, so is the capsule\u2019s speed as it undergoes rapid deceleration.\u00a0 Two minutes and 10 seconds after it enters the atmosphere, a drogue parachute will deploy to stabilize the container and around 1,000 meters (3,200 feet) the main parachutes will deploy.\u00a0 The entire process from entry to landing will take approximately 13 minutes and once touchdown is achieved, the ground teams will spring into action.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lauretta and his team will be waiting in hangars at the Utah Test and Training Range which will put them less than an hour away from the landing zone which they will reach by helicopter.\u00a0 He explained, \u201cThere will be four helicopters staged there.\u00a0 In case of inclement weather, we\u2019ll have ground track vehicles, so we will drive out, which will take a lot longer.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter – rain or shine, whatever happens in Utah, we\u2019re coming.\u201d\u00a0 The first to arrive will be the safety officer who will make sure the landing area is safe.\u00a0 Soil, air, and anything else around the capsule will be sampled and photographed by the rest of the team.\u00a0 The capsule will then be taken back to the hangar and housed in a portable clean room where it will have the back shell and heat shield removed as well as the avionics equipment.\u00a0 The sample canister itself will be placed in a nitrogen rich environment before curation, much like the Apollo lunar samples were stored.\u00a0 The nitrogen purge will keep out the terrestrial atmosphere and humidity.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The canister, still bathed in nitrogen gas, will be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.\u00a0 Nicole Lunning, deputy OSIRIS-REx curator within NASA\u2019s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division is in charge of preserving the asteroid samples.\u00a0 Lunning says, \u201cThe canister does not get opened until they get into the O-REx curation lab.\u00a0 We actually will open the canister inside a nitrogen glove box.\u00a0 We\u2019ll basically have a very elaborate unboxing procedure,\u201d Lunning joked before adding this step will take place nine or ten days after landing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lauretta estimates there could be about 250 grams of sample to work with, an amount similar to the mass of a baseball.\u00a0 \u201cHaving more sample than we know what to do with is the best-case scenario, \u201c says Lunning.\u00a0 The mission\u2019s goal was to collect at least 59.5 grams.\u00a0 The materials will be closely analyzed at the NASA facility.\u00a0 Eventually, smaller samples will be hand-carried to labs around the world as part of NASA\u2019s Participating Scientist Program.\u00a0 Many other samples will remain in the Johnson Space Center vault for future study.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the fly-by drop off in September, what will become of the O-REx probe?\u00a0 It will continue on an extended mission and become OSIRIS-APEX (or<\/span> AP<\/span>ophis <\/span>EX<\/span>plorer.\u00a0 It will target another near-Earth asteroid (and another potentially hazardous object) 99942 Apophis.<\/span><\/p>\n Apophis will make a very close pass to the Earth on April 13, 2029.\u00a0 O-APEX will begin observing Apophis on April 8 of that year and make a planned rendezvous with the asteroid on April 21.\u00a0 During the 18 months it orbits the new asteroid, O-APEX will use its thrusters to disturb the surface materials so a spectral study of the subsurface materials can be done.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has become commonplace for NASA, SpaceX, and other space related organizations to air live coverage of their major events.\u00a0 No doubt the capsule recovery from the O-REx mission will be carried on one or more platforms live.\u00a0 If one misses the big event on September 24, the event will be played and replayed on multiple platforms for quite a while.\u00a0 Welcome back, O-REx and happy landings and good luck O-APEX on your continued journey.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay space history buffs – this isn’t a song about O-REx, but hey, you can not go wrong with Telestar\u00a0<\/em>by the Tornados – love that organ sound!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In his Your Place in Space feature printed in The Planetary Report\u2019s June Solstice 2023 edition, Bill Nye opened this special OSIRIS-REx issue with some reflections about the probe\u2019s seven year journey.\u00a0 As the president of The Planetary Society, Nye wanted to remind all the Society\u2019s members that, \u201cYou share in missions like OSIRIS-REx.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2947,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions\/2947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}