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NASA's OSIRIS-REx


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42 minutes ago, Arugela said:

I wonder if this is Raxxla related. How long has that name and this mission been planned?

The name OSIRIS-REx?  We picked OSIRIS in 2004 to describe the mission goals: 

  • Origins
  • Spectral Interpretation
  • Resource Investigation
  • Security

We proposed OSIRIS twice as a Discovery class mission.  After OSIRIS was not selected after a Phase A study (the Grail mission was selected instead), heart-broken, we needed to re-propose in the New Frontiers program.  New Frontiers requires a bigger scientific impact than Discovery, so initially as a joke in 2008 we added Rex after OSIRIS since it would be bigger, kingly, T. rex like.  Mixing Egyptian with Latin was odd, but oh well.  We then bacronymed Rex into REx for Regolith Explorer.

It is fortunate that OSIRIS wasn't selected.  Bennu has been much more challenging than predicted with the best science at the time and we have needed every bit of the extra capabilities provided by a New Frontiers class spacecraft.

See also, https://dslauretta.com/2015/01/22/osiris-rex-whats-in-a-name/

 

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On 8/10/2020 at 4:16 PM, IonStorm said:

Tomorrow is a very important milestone for the OSIRIS-REx mission - the final rehearsal before sample collection! We invite you all to join us for a live play-by-play on Twitter August 11 at 2:30 EDT on Twitter@osirisrex    

The OSIRIS-REx team (following social distancing and wearing masks) will conduct its Matchpoint Maneuver Rehearsal over the Nightingale Site on asteroid Bennu. There will be a 16 minute one-way communication delay between the spacecraft and Earth. So the event commands will be uploaded to the spacecraft and the maneuver will be conducted autonomously. The low gain antenna will transmit data to Earth with images and science data downlinked when the rehearsal is completed.

For more details on the Matchpoint Maneuver and a summary poster.

 

No F9 required.  A perfect rehearsal.

https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=a-successful-second-rehearsal-puts-nasas-osiris-rex-on-a-path-to-sample-collection

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/19/2020 at 5:00 PM, cubinator said:

that's a big picture. Any recommendations on software I can use to actually look at it?

Now available publically in the Bennu Trek with 3D globe projection (& a >88 million vertices nexus shape model (nexus toolkit) ;-)

now, how to add exploring Kerbals to such exquisite detail...lol...Thank you OSIRIS-REx team for capturing this amazing imagery.

also a fun animation of particle ejections from Bennu in their recent news release...

Ujpmp5P.png D4Tctmw.png
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17 minutes ago, AloE said:

Now available publically in the Bennu Trek with 3D globe projection (& a >88 million vertices nexus shape model (nexus toolkit) ;-)

now, how to add exploring Kerbals to such exquisite detail...lol...Thank you OSIRIS-REx team for capturing this amazing imagery.

also a fun animation of particle ejections from Bennu in their recent news release...

Fantastic!  I hadn't realized it was out of beta yet.  We're still working on getting our color mosaic MapCam data released as a layer (don't get too excited, the colors are really subtle). 

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Announcement

This Thursday, Sept. 24, OSIRIS-REx will hold a briefing to update members of the media on our sample collection efforts and to spread our excitement about TAG to the public. The briefing will be broadcast over NASA.gov. Details below:

Date:                     Sept. 24
Time:                   1900 UTC/3:00 pm EDT/12:00 pm PDT
Website:             Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at www.nasa.gov/live 
 
Participating in the mission update are:
•    Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
•    Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division
•    Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson
•    Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
•    Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx mission operations manager at Lockheed Martin Space
 
And between now and TAG – follow the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and our websites www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex and www.asteroidmission.org – to get in on the excitement.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's almost time to touch Bennu.  Follow along on NASA TV starting at 5pm EDT/21:00 UTC on Tuesday 20 October 2020 and a live stream of the STK simulation at https://www.asteroidmission.org and follow @OSIRISREx

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Tune in at 5 pm EDT tomorrow! 
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October 19, 2020

Tomorrow is TAG Day!

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Tomorrow -- October 20 -- the OSIRIS-REx mission will perform the first attempt of its Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event at asteroid Bennu. Watch on NASA TV starting at 5 pm EDT, and follow along with the OSIRIS-REx Twitter account for a live play-by-play of TAG.

In the meantime, keep following the OSIRIS-REx Twitter and Facebook pages for updates on the various activities surrounding this historic event. We look forward to sharing the excitement with you!

 

The TAG Event Sequence

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Tomorrow, the spacecraft will leave its safe-home orbit to begin the journey to Bennu's surface. It'll perform the Checkpoint and Matchpoint burns to steeply descend to the surface, and then... it's time to collect a sample from site Nightingale! Download the poster to follow along. Read more about what to expect from TAG here.

 

OSIRIS-REx in Real-Time

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Watch the spacecraft's activities like you're a member of the mission operations team! Stream the real-time engineering simulation of the sampling event starting at 1:22 pm EDT here.

 

TAG is TRICKY!

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Wondering just how difficult it is to grab rocks off a tiny asteroid? The straight answer is… it's very difficult. But check out this video on how the OSIRIS-REx team has risen to the challenge. 
 

Take a Tour of Bennu

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Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but were instead greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders – the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields. Now, thanks to laser altimetry data and high-resolution imagery from OSIRIS-REx, we can take a tour of Bennu’s remarkable terrain. 
 
 
Follow Us At: 
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I very much look forward to hearing about what did get collected &

more views of the disturbed sight & those ejected materials as the craft backs away...

some nice time lapse animations! https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=osiris-rex-tags-asteroid-bennu

Edited by AloE
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