IonStorm

I have done a lot of reading. Though my Ph.D. Is in biochemistry, my career and dissertation have been on astrobiology (and exobiology when it was called that). We know from the Stardust mission that there are high temperature grains in comet Wild 2, and presumably other Jupiter family comets. This point to the early solar system being well mixed. There are also minerals that indicate aqueous history (copper iron sulfide) in Wild 2. It could mean cometary micro liquid phases, oceans, or transport from other objects. We need a comet surface sample return mission to find out. The meteorites hypothesized to come from a comet (e.g., CI1 type) but without an unaltered comet to compare against we can’t know. It has been theorized that Ryugu and Bennu are extinct comets. Also note that the distinction between comet and asteroid is fuzzy.

There are other meteorite types with phosphorous (Table 1 https://www.geo.arizona.edu/xtal/group/pdf/EarthScienceReviews_221_2021_103806.pdf). The fairly pure salt is unusual. Some was seen on Ryugu samples as well, but they are different. There is lots of P in the Earth's crust as well. The problem with phosphate is is usually gets bound in insoluble calcium phosphate. Magnesium phosphate is more accessible. There is still a lot of work to figure out the details of the form of phosphate and any organophosphates. Phosphate use in biology is far older and more fundamental than animals. Phosphates are a critical subunit of DNA and RNA, lipids, and metabolic intermediates. Here's a classic (and relatively accessible paper if you skip over some of the chemistry) on it https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.2434996

To be fair, this is the anticipated trajectory. As always there will be course correction maneuvers along the way to precisely adjust and make up for any under or over burns. For the rendezvous with Earth last year there were 4 maneuvers (and numerous backups that were not needed) to slowly nudge the spacecraft to Earth intercept and landing on target. Nevertheless the maneuvers are still remarkable: Smallest maneuver 0.1 mm/s; largest 431 m/s 10 orbit insertions; 127 deep space maneuvers First frozen orbit at a small body 37k optical navigation images Lowest orbit (832 m semimajor axis) around smallest object (490 m ave.) One safe mode in 7 years (human error outbound cruise) Arrival to departure: Also, your timing is great. The stuck fasteners were removed yesterday! https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/11/nasas-osiris-rex-team-clears-hurdle-to-access-remaining-bennu-sample/

Check yo staging

Also suitable for hugging https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxwvmgu5pYxyFCRWorUCLpQ76j0F9PRSEu?si=nBBC5366t8gBDecC

I'm out of my expertise of organic astrochemistry here, but the spectral classification (class M) is based on reflectance spectra mostly in the visible. Such a reflectance is based on the topmost material, thus the preponderance of material in the spectrum is responsible for the class M feature: featureless spectrum, flat or red than blue and low-middle albedo. Thus, whatever geology is responsible for the Class M spectra would be on display to the Psyche mission. 21 Lutetia was imaged by Rosetta in 2010 (Figure 1 ) is also a class M asteroid, though with a little lower density than more recent values for 16 Psyche. The more recent Scott Manley video on Psyche discusses some of the astronomy of the object (Figure 2). OSIRIS-REx wishes Psyche an uneventful outbound cruise and a good luck at understanding this strange asteroid (Figure 3). Figure 1. Class M asteroid 21 Lutetia Figure 2. Scott Manley discusses some 16 Psyche astronomy starting at 1:30. Figure 3. Curators take a break in the OSIRIS-REx cleanroom to watch the Psyche launch.

I'd love an intercept to an interstellar object. This is difficult though there are some ideas. Remember that, these can be at any inclination, including retrograde, and at very high speeds. So you need a whole lot of ∆V. You don't have a lot of time from discovery so there probably isn't time to do a bunch of gravity assists. But I'm just guessing. Storage costs are also not nothing. The refurbishment of DSCOVR was in the dozens of $M (I don't have a good source on the number and haven't looked too hard) but the 2-year delay of InSight was about $150M ($RY).

Depending on how you define inexpensive. Both OSIRIS-REx and Psyche cost around $1B each for cost perspective. I don't know that a cubesat is up to the task and the telecom downlink cost is also not nothing, let alone the launch vehicle. The lesson of faster-better-cheaper (pick two) means that if you want faster and cheaper, you and your financial backers need to be good with a high failure rate. Also with 1.3M asteroids it depends on how you define convenient, there could be a lot of launches with a long travel time. But it would be cool.

OSIRIS-REx had a wet mass of 2.1 tonnes. The costs are really development and testing of the hardware--almost entirely labor. Depending on how you define COTS there is no sample return capsule. So I guess you would spend all that mass on fuel to slow enough to enter orbit to dock with Dragon (if that counts at COTS). There has been a lot of argument if Ryugu (or perhaps Bennu) is an extinct comet. Since we have never returned unaltered comet material (Stardust dust from Wild 2 was heated upon impact with the aerogel collector), a sample from a comet would be the next step. The CAESAR mission concept (not selected in favor of Dragonfly) would have returned a cold sample from a comet. With more mass I would add active cooling. For OSIRIS-REx, I would have a sealed SRC (that requires a lot of mass to keep it under vacuum) or just launch a fleet of OSIRIS-REx's to different primitive asteroids or different spots on one. Making a bunch of OSIRIS-RExs would lower the unit cost.

There are two possible sources of ice. 1. The most probable is Florida. Water adsorbed on the spacecraft before launch can be lost to space (see https://www.asteroidmission.org/?mission_update=dec-11-2017) but it can also re-condense on the spacecraft. You may have heard of spacecraft doing a rotisserie or barbecue roll which heats the spacecraft evenly and also pushes out water from across the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx, like many spacecraft, has instruments which can never be pointed into the Sun to keep the optics from being damaged. OSIRIS-REx went through several "toe-dips" to bring sunlight onto the SRC without shining it directly down the instrument apertures to heat up the SRC and drive water out of the porous heat shield and backshell. But some areas, including the bottom of the SRC is always in shadow. Furthermore, to avoid heating the sample only one brief toe-dip was allowed after sample collection. So water from warmer areas of the spacecraft could migrate to this permanently shadowed region. 2. It is also possible that ammonia produced by the hydrazine monopropellant thrusters could freeze out (-78°C) in deeply shaded regions of the spacecraft.

Exactly. The SRC is attached with a sep/spin mechanism. When the SRC is released the mechanism a spring and screw give the SRC a little push and twist. The spin is for our old friend spin stabilization since the SRC has no guidance or propulsion.

Here is the SRC leaving the spacecraft captured by NavCam. The lighting isn't great due to the orientation of the spacecraft needed to aim at Earth. To orient you, glare from the Sun is at the top. The crescent Earth is at the left. The SRC moves from right towards center, you can see it rotating with the connections on the bottom catching the light. In the way are dark blobs buzzing around. These are probably asteroid dust, though ice is also possible.

During the launch campaign there was a team member who has a notorious love of puns. To tease him I submitted the below fake requirement. He joked back at a pre-launch review indicating the this requirement had not been met, but without catastrophic consequence.

Looks like there's some asteroid outside the sampler. https://www.youtube.com/live/92g5eiqb_fo?si=iSZqOHw8E_MpQ_cu&t=382

The capsule has two lithium-sulfur dioxide batteries. There is a small chance that they can conflagrate and release toxic gas. So the technicians approach with respirators until their gas sensors show it’s safe. So nothing to do with space or the samples.

Today is preparation for shipping. It is Lockheed technicians (who actually put it together 8 years ago) and JSC curators. At JSC they will open the sample canister and do the formal handoff of the hardware to NASA. The PI will also be watching. Then the slow deliberate disassembly to catalogue and distribute the samples. Thank you. That means a lot. It is very important to share the experience and the science with the world. And we did rehearse a lot, but so far absolutely flawless.

Still busy in Utah, but here are some photos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72177720311435828/

Thank you! Here are more images from the collection and more. https://www.asteroidmission.org/galleries/sample-collection-videos-and-images/

There are two different things. The sample collection device (TAGSAM) was overflowing with sample. So material was leaking into space since the mylar flap was wedged open with rocks. We stowed it quickly to prevent losing more. Still, we collected 250±101g from our 60g requirement. https://www.asteroidmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/5_deg_fast_cropped-3-frame-slowed86.gif We stowed the sample head and checked that it was locked in place. https://www.asteroidmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/src_stow_head.png Then closed the sample return capsule (SRC) lid. https://www.asteroidmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/StowCam_SRC-Close-Gif.gif No lingering issue.

The most recent photo of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/09/First_view_of_OSIRIS-REx_returning_with_asteroid_sample

The burn on 8/17/23 was a ∆V of 3 mm/s. (Not even the smallest burn in OSIRIS-REx history. There was a burn to adjust the phasing of the orbit around Bennu of 0.1 mm/s It is described in the latest blog https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/09/19/osiris-rex-makes-final-course-adjustment-before-sept-24-sample-delivery/ (I wrote the one on May 23 about science https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/05/23/guest-blog-bennu-and-some-of-the-biggest-science-questions-of-our-generation/). You can register to follow along at https://www.nasa.gov/specials/virtualguest/ 84 hours to go!

I just saw this amazing KSP recreation of the mission to date.

Thanks for the bump. The hangar where the briefing happened was hot. Though not nearly as hot as it was during the recovery rehearsal last month (41°C); I'm at 17:46 in the video and in the back of the audience during the briefing :) Lots more videos at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/OSIRIS-REx.html

It was announced today https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0314-usps-updates-2023-stamp-program.htm