Osiris-Rex mission to bring back samples from astroid Bennu

[selvaarchi]

Could not find a thread on Osiris-Rex in the exploration forum so am starting one. I am including a few articles including Fraser's from the Universe Today before including the latest news I read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/os.../#.VH_kIGcdSxU
http://www.universetoday.com/116192/...back-to-earth/

The mission is still on track despite loss of some hardware due to a fire.

http://www.spacenews.com/article/civ...loss-of-flight

A massive fire at a contractor’s shop in Los Angeles destroyed flight hardware for NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample-return probe this summer, but the mission remains on track for launch in 2016, according to a recent report from the agency’s inspector general.

The July fire at Highland Plating Company destroyed a metal box that was supposed to house the optics and electronics for the Osiris-Rex Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) that NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is building for the $800 million mission, which is designed to return a sample of the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu to Earth in 2023.

The fire also destroyed a spare optics box, according to NASA spokeswoman Nancy Jones. Local media reported in July that the fire caused $1.8 million in damage and took 130 firefighters two hours to extinguish.

[selvaarchi]

With a year to go before launch, NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample-return probe has completed the design and assembly stage and has entered the environmental test phase.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/pr...89&filter=1639

"OSIRIS-REx is entering environmental testing on schedule, on budget and with schedule reserves," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "This allows us to have flexibility if any concerns arise during final launch preparations."

Over the next five months, the spacecraft will be subjected to a range of rigorous tests that simulate the vacuum, vibration and extreme temperatures it will experience throughout the life of its mission.

"This is an exciting time for the program as we now have a completed spacecraft and the team gets to test drive it, in a sense, before we actually fly it to asteroid Bennu," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "The environmental test phase is an important time in the mission as it will reveal any issues with the spacecraft and instruments, while here on Earth, before we send it into deep space."

Specifically, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will undergo tests to simulate the harsh environment of space, including acoustical, separation and deployment shock, vibration, and electromagnetic interference. The simulation concludes with a test in which the spacecraft and its instruments are placed in a vacuum chamber and cycled through the extreme hot and cold temperatures it will face during its journey to Bennu.

[selvaarchi]

Launch of First U.S. Spacecraft to Sample Asteroid Set for September, NASA Media Accreditation Open.

Also an article with more details and announcing its arrival at Florida Launch Base

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/la...ber-nasa-media

NASA has opened accreditation for media to attend the September launch of the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will travel to and collect surface material from the asteroid Bennu, and return it to Earth for study.

OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sept. 8. The two-hour launch window opens at 7:05 p.m. EDT.

[selvaarchi]

Nice account about OSIRIS-REx mission and asteroids and why the mission.

http://collinkrum.kinja.com/osiris-r...sio-1774374136

“The first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who mines asteroids.” This quote by Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson posits that asteroids are more than just dinosaur killers—they’re the real estate market of the future. We’re still a few years away from seeing such fortunes made in the heavens above and beyond our home planet, but future land barons of outer space will trace their riches to a robotic spacecraft launching this September. That’s when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to launch, with the aim of collecting a sample from an asteroid and returning it to Earth in 2023.

If successful, OSIRIS-REx will return only a tiny sample to Earth, but what that sample will represent is immeasurably greater than a few dozen grams of sweet, sweet regolith. OSIRIS-REx is a critical step forward in our spacefaring future, as illustrated by the mission’s objectives: Reveal information about the solar system’s early history, help to mitigate asteroid impact hazards, enable a future human mission to an asteroid and develop interplanetary commerce. By any measure, those are four giant leaps—truly massive aspirations for a robot spacecraft barely taller than an NBA player.

[selvaarchi]

Engineers working on NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft successfully carried out tests of the vehicle’s communications systems.

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/mi...-rex-conclude/

The recent tests were held to ensure the spacecraft will be able to send important information to mission managers back on Earth. Data transmitted through the vehicle’s communications system includes, but is not limited to, scientific discoveries, the vehicle’s overall health, and a survey of Bennu.

The tests provided mission planners with the opportunity to see how OSIRIS-REx’s communications systems will operate when they are millions of miles in space – even though the test site was located next door to where the spacecraft was situated.

[selvaarchi]

4 and a half minute video on OSIRIS-REx.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/07/...face-asteroid/

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch September 2016 and travel to a near-Earth asteroid known as Bennu to harvest a sample of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The science team will be looking for something special. Ideally, the sample will come from a region in which the building blocks of life may be found.

To identify these regions on Bennu, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) team equipped the spacecraft with an instrument that will measure the spectral signatures of Bennu’s mineralogical and molecular components.

Known as OVIRS (short for the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer), the instrument will measure visible and near-infrared light reflected and emitted from the asteroid and split the light into its component wavelengths, much like a prism that splits sunlight into a rainbow.

“OVIRS is key to our search for organics on Bennu,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “In particular, we will rely on it to find the areas of Bennu rich in organic molecules to identify possible sample sites of high science value, as well as the asteroid’s general composition.”

[selvaarchi]

Buildup of unusual launcher begins for NASA’s asteroid sample return mission

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/08/08...eturn-mission/

It is a rocket like no other, a vehicle with a single solid-fuel booster mounted to its side, that will launch NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe next month to bring back a sample of Asteroid Bennu.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in the unique 411 configuration, which has successfully flown three times before, is scheduled for liftoff Sept. 8.

Stacking of the vehicle aboard the mobile launch platform began with the first stage this morning at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility at Complex 41 for the much-anticipated mission.

The lone solid will be attached tomorrow and the pre-assembled interstage, Centaur upper stage and boattail will be lifted into place on Wednesday.

Initial powerup of the rocket occurs on Thursday and the Combined Systems Test, which is the critical electrical checkout of the vehicle, will follow next Monday, Aug. 15.

“From Monday to Monday, we should have the entire mechanical stack complete and the initial power sequence coupled with the Combined Systems Test. So it’s going to go pretty quick,” said Tim Dunn, NASA’s launch director for OSIRIS-REx from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Services Program.

[selvaarchi]

Two articles from Emily Lakdawalla on the mission. The 1st one is "OSIRIS-REx prepares for launch" and the 2nd "OSIRIS-REx launch preview" Enjoy

[selvaarchi]

What will happen to the samples that OSIRIS-REx bring back. Read on to find the answers.

http://www.popsci.com/what-will-happ...steroid-sample

Many different organizations contributed to the OSIRIS-REx mission, and as such are privy to a little slice of Bennu. The entire sample will be divided up as follows: 25 percent will go to the OSIRIS-Rex science team so they can complete the mission objectives, and the remaining 75 percent will go to NASA.

NASA’s portion will be divided up even further, with roughly 5 percent stored at NASA’s facility in White Sands, New Mexico, as insurance, in case something happens to the lab at Johnson Space Center. Another 4 percent will be shipped to the Canadian Space Agency as payment for a laser altimeter the spacecraft will use to map Bennu’s surface, and finally, the Japanese Space Agency will receive one-half percent.

The rest will be "set aside for future researchers for the science questions we haven’t figured out to even ask yet, and the science laboratory instruments that we haven’t even developed yet,” said OSIRIS REx program executive Gordon Johnston during a recent press conference.

[selvaarchi]

See a 4 minute animation of the OSIRIS-REx mission

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/08/30...o-return-home/

This NASA animation depicts the OSIRIS-REx mission beginning with liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 8, embarking on a voyage to rendezvous and orbit Asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft will use its cameras, laser and spectrometer instruments to map the mountain-size rock starting in late 2018 before performing a touch-and-go maneuver to capture a pristine sample in 2020 that is returned to Earth for study. Landing in Utah is planned for Sept. 24, 2023.

[selvaarchi]

Oriris-Rex is on its way

http://spaceflight101.com/atlas-v-la...steroid-bennu/

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Explorer took the first leap in a long journey through the solar system on Thursday, lifting off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V rocket on a long-awaited mission to touch an asteroid to answer the long standing question on the origins life.

Rumbling off on time at 23:05 UTC under the loud thunder of its Russian-built rocket engine and lone booster, Atlas V first lifted the spacecraft into a Parking Orbit around Earth before firing its upper stage again to place OSIRIS-REx on a path escaping the grasp of Earth’s gravity at a blazing speed. The spacecraft separated from the carrier rocket one hour after launch and appeared healthy during its first steps in space.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[selvaarchi]

OSIRIS-Rex instruments all check out

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NA...Check_999.html

Its science instruments have been powered on, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft continues on its journey to an asteroid. The spacecraft has passed its initial instrument check with flying colors as it speeds toward a 2018 rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu. Last week NASA's spacecraft designed to collect a sample of an asteroid ran the first check of its onboard instruments.

Starting on Sept. 19, engineers controlling the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft powered on and operated the mission's five science instruments and one of its navigational instruments. The data received from the checkout indicate that the spacecraft and its instruments are all healthy.

[selvaarchi]

After checking its instruments (see above) OSIRIS-REx conducted tests on its thrusters.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/OS...Bennu_999.html

With all the instruments working as expected, OSIRIS-REx was ready for its crucial first Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-1) scheduled for Oct. 7. The 12-second long maneuver that began at 1:00 p.m. EDT, was planned to to slightly adjust the spacecraft's trajectory towards Bennu.

However, due to the fact that the Atlas V launcher has accurately inserted the probe into the right orbit, the correction was unnecessary. Therefore, the controllers used this maneuver to test the TCM thrusters, practicing before next maneuver scheduled for December 2016.

"This maneuver was originally included in the flight plan to fine-tune the spacecraft's trajectory, if needed, after launch. But our rocket - a ULA Atlas V 411 - performed so accurately that we really didn't need to adjust the spacecraft's trajectory. Instead, the team used TCM-1 to test out the TCM thrusters and as practice for a much larger propulsive maneuver scheduled for December," Enos said.

[selvaarchi]

OSIRIS-REx successfully adjusts course to do swing by earth on 22 September.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NA...ourse_999.html

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters to position itself on the correct course for its upcoming Earth flyby. The spacecraft, which is on a two-year outbound journey to asteroid Bennu, successfully performed a precision course adjustment on Wednesday to prepare for the gravity slingshot on Sept. 22.

This trajectory correction maneuver was the first to use the spacecraft's Attitude Control System, or ACS, thrusters in a turn-burn-turn sequence. In this type of sequence, OSIRIS-REx's momentum wheels turn the spacecraft to point the ACS thrusters toward the desired direction for the burn, and the thrusters fire.

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla takes us through Osiris-Rex flyby of earth today.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...lyby-what.html

Now, a year later, it's returning to its home to get a second boost on to its destination, the asteroid Bennu. The main purpose of the flyby is to change the inclination of OSIRIS-REx's orbit to match Bennu's. To tilt the orbit, the spacecraft has to pass by one of Earth's poles. So the spacecraft will approach Earth most closely over Antarctica, south of Cape Horn. Close approach altitude is 17,237 kilometers (targeting 23,595.5 kilometers above Earth's center). Due to the far southern location, OSIRIS-REx will be out of contact with all Deep Space Network stations for about an hour around closest approach.

[bknight]

Any update after the flyby?

[selvaarchi]

Any update after the flyby?

Another 6 hours before we regain contact.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[selvaarchi]

More details from spaceflight101.

https://spaceflight101.com/osiris-re...ravity-assist/

Over a year after its launch, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is inbound for a close flyby of Earth on Friday to use the planet’s gravity to bend its flight path and place it on a course approaching asteroid Bennu next year for an up-close study of the ancient world including a daring touch-and-go maneuver to vacuum up sample material that is hoped to provide insight into the birth and early formation of the Solar System.

Friday’s gravity assist brings the two-metric-ton OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to a closest approach at a distance of around 17,000 Kilometers, passing within the Geostationary Belt where the world’s communications and weather satellites reside. The primary purpose of the maneuver is ‘borrowing’ some momentum from Earth to place the craft onto its approach path to Bennu for arrival in November 2018, but the flyby will also be utilized as a welcome opportunity to use the well-known Earth-Moon system to calibrate the spacecraft’s instruments after a year in space.

[publiusr]

A nice present for my birthday today

[selvaarchi]

Any update after the flyby?

We might have to wait for Tuesday when they will have a press conference on the flyby.

[selvaarchi]

Any update after the flyby?

The flyby was a success. Here is Emily Lakdawalla with the details.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...siris-rex.html

As expected, OSIRIS-REx's Earth flyby on September 22 was a success. The spacecraft coasted past Antarctica at 16:52 UT, using Earth's gravity to bend the spacecraft's trajectory onto a course toward Bennu's tilted orbit. It hit its target within 6 kilometers and 1 second, principal investigator Dante Lauretta says. The next time OSIRIS-REx returns to Earth, on September 24, 2023, it will be carrying samples of asteroid material.

[selvaarchi]

Latest updates on OSIRIS-REx.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/OS...Bennu_999.html

OSIRIS-REx is continuing outbound cruise operations, en route to arrival in August of 2018 at the asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft is currently 29.6 million miles (47.6 million kilometers) from Earth and is executing a program designed to study and reduce the presence of water on the spacecraft.

During routine in-flight testing of the spacecraft's thermal properties earlier this year, the mission's navigation team noticed an unexpected minor acceleration of the spacecraft when the Sample Return Capsule (SRC) was exposed to sunlight. The mission team determined that this small thrust was caused by the outgassing of water that had been adsorbed by the SRC's heat shield and backshell before launch.

[selvaarchi]

OSIRIS-REx takes a picture of earth and its moon. Enjoy

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/f...oon-and-beyond

This composite image of the Earth and Moon is made from data captured by OSIRIS-REx's MapCam instrument on Oct. 2, 2017, when the spacecraft was approximately 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) from Earth, about 13 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. (Click here to see the geometry of the shot.) Three images (different color wavelengths) were combined and color-corrected to make the composite, and the Moon was “stretched” (brightened) to make it more easily visible.

[bknight]

Nice clear and complete image. Hopefully the rest of the mission will be conducted without mishaps.

[Trebuchet]

OSIRIS-REx takes a picture of earth and its moon. Enjoy

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/f...oon-and-beyond

I love the sense of proportion that gives us. Do click on the link to the geometry of the shot, which shows the moon was not quite at it's maximum apparent distance from the earth relative to OSIRIS-REx.

No stars, so of course it's obviously fake.

[selvaarchi]

Another picture of earth and the moon taken on the 17th of January.

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/NAS...Image_999.html

As part of an engineering test, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and Moon using its NavCam1 imager on January 17 from a distance of 39.5 million miles (63.6 million km). When the camera acquired the image, the spacecraft was moving away from home at a speed of 19,000 miles per hour (8.5 kilometers per second).

Earth is the largest, brightest spot in the center of the image, with the smaller, dimmer Moon appearing to the right. Several constellations are also visible in the surrounding space. The bright cluster of stars in the upper left corner is the Pleiades in the Taurus constellation.

[selvaarchi]

OSIRIS-REx had an encounter in deep space!

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...-us-space.html

It's no secret that I love pictures of spacecraft taken in space. So even though OSIRIS-REx's StowCam viewpoint doesn't change much at all from one month to another, I still thrill at seeing a new-to-me picture of the mission's sample return capsule. Cool! But wait, what's that black dot near the top?

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla updates us on the mission.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...siris-rex.html

As Hayabusa2 coasts toward Ryugu, a second asteroid sample return mission is nearing its own rendezvous. NASA's OSIRIS-REx will get the first sight of its target Bennu in August and go into orbit in December. It's a bit early to post about what to expect, but Hayabusa2's impending arrival is making a lot of people (including me) ask "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" about OSIRIS-REx.

The short answer to that question: No, we're not there yet, and it's going to be quite a while until we see cool high-resolution pictures of Bennu. But your patience will be rewarded. The mission team has described their plans in excruciating detail in a Lauretta et al. paper in Space Science Reviews. This paper is exceptionally well-organized and readable with excellent figures and is open-access, so if this blog post doesn't give you enough detail, go check the paper out.

[selvaarchi]

"Successful second deep space maneuver for OSIRIS-REx confirmed"

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Su...irmed_999.html

New tracking data confirms that NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully completed its second Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-2) on June 28. The thruster burn put the spacecraft on course for a series of asteroid approach maneuvers to be executed this fall that will culminate with the spacecraft's scheduled arrival at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3.

The DSM-2 burn, which employed the spacecraft's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thruster set, resulted in a 37 miles per hour (16.7 meters per second) change in the vehicle's velocity and consumed 28.2 pounds (12.8 kilograms) of fuel.

[selvaarchi]

First picture of its target

http://www.spacedaily.com/afp/180824....y5t5bdbq.html

Two years after launching from Florida, a NASA spacecraft is closing in on an ancient asteroid, Bennu, for a sample of space dust that could reveal clues to the start of life in the solar system.
The spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, has even snapped its first, blurry pic of the cosmic body, which is about the size of a small mountain, about 500 yards (meters) in diameter.