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NASA's OSIRIS-REx


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On September 8, 2016 at 4:54 PM, njmksr said:

Whoops! Forgot we had a member of the OSIRIS-REx team on the forums!

I doubt that he'll be paying attention to this. He's either got pre-launch coverage to watch, or, ya know, he's actually there :P << (More likely)

I was on console in the event of an anomaly.  Luckily, it was pretty boring. :D

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23 minutes ago, IonStorm said:

I was on console in the event of an anomaly.  Luckily, it was pretty boring. :D

Congrats to your team, ULA, and the USAF range team. Really a textbook launch yesterday. I was impressed with how easy you folks made it look.

Best,
-Slashy

 

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8 hours ago, Robotengineer said:

@IonStorm What do you (and the team) do during the cruise phase?

Most of the team moves to other projects.  (This is one reason launch is bittersweet. I will now rarely see the friends I have made and worked with for years.)  There will be periodic updates https://dslauretta.com/2016/09/10/osiris-rex-day-2-in-space/ through the DSN http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html. So the navigation team is getting busy as the build team moves on.  (Note that the enhanced acceleration noted was truly tiny, on the order of µm/s2.)  My time on the project also decreases--there is less for me to do on a daily basis and this saves money for OSIRIS-REx.

There are some scheduled activities:  calibrations, rehearsals of observing modes (ground testing is great, but not quite the same as in space), tweaks to the software.  15 days after launch we turn on the instruments for a health check.  In January we do a maneuver to put us on track with Bennu and prepare for EGA in a year. 

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  • 4 months later...
41 minutes ago, Racescort666 said:

Yay science!

This has been my favorite mission so far. I even bought an OSIRIS-REx coffee mug.

Thanks!  Which design:  dinosaur, shield, or triangle logo?  Sadly, the "Kiss my asteroid!" mugs were limited edition.

P.S. Breaking Bad fans will also appreciate that searching for chiral compounds is an OSIRIS-REx objective.  In our case, not D-methamphetamine (dangerous drug) vs. L-methamphetamine (mild decongestant) but compounds important for the origin and evolution of life, e.g.  http://www.labnews.co.uk/features/reaching-origins-life-22-10-2015/ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00074

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29 minutes ago, IonStorm said:

Thanks!  Which design:  dinosaur, shield, or triangle logo?  Sadly, the "Kiss my asteroid!" mugs were limited edition.

P.S. Breaking Bad fans will also appreciate that searching for chiral compounds is an OSIRIS-REx objective.  In our case, not D-methamphetamine (dangerous drug) vs. L-methamphetamine (mild decongestant) but compounds important for the origin and evolution of life, e.g.  http://www.labnews.co.uk/features/reaching-origins-life-22-10-2015/ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00074

15823390_10100593217469297_7178348381110

I assume that this is the triangle one. I wanted to get a tshirt when I was at KSC but they only had XL and I wear a medium. I ended up with a Delta IV Heavy shirt instead. 

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  • 7 months later...
20 minutes ago, IonStorm said:

Thanks!  We get instrument calibration data from the Earth and Moon tomorrow.  

This is really cool, couple questions though, how much delta v did you gain? also how did you determine when the gravity assist ended as it reached perigee  earlier today ?

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Just now, insert_name said:

This is really cool, couple questions though, how much delta v did you gain? also how did you determine when the gravity assist ended as it reached perigee  earlier today ?

We got a 6° plane change, not a speed increase. The effective ∆V imparted to the spacecraft by the angular momentum exchange with Earth as a result of this flyby is 3.778 km/s.  This is about 90% more than the 1.986 km/s ∆V capability in the spacecraft’s monoprop system. This velocity change does not mean that the spacecraft either speeds up or slows down by this amount, since much of this change is used change the orbit inclination.

There is no EGA event, but the countdown clock was at closest approach.  The observing campaign lasts 10 days after with downlinks at EGA +1, +3 and +10. The navigation team breathed easier after contact with Goldstone was re-established after crossing into the western hemisphere with no errors or interruptions.

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11 minutes ago, IonStorm said:

We got a 6° plane change, not a speed increase. The effective ∆V imparted to the spacecraft by the angular momentum exchange with Earth as a result of this flyby is 3.778 km/s.  This is about 90% more than the 1.986 km/s ∆V capability in the spacecraft’s monoprop system. This velocity change does not mean that the spacecraft either speeds up or slows down by this amount, since much of this change is used change the orbit inclination.

There is no EGA event, but the countdown clock was at closest approach.  The observing campaign lasts 10 days after with downlinks at EGA +1, +3 and +10. The navigation team breathed easier after contact with Goldstone was re-established after crossing into the western hemisphere with no errors or interruptions.

I always wondered why some High gain antennas are covered like the one on OSIRIS-REx and Juno, where as older Spacecraft don't seem to be build that way. What is the purpose or Advantage of these covers? 

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51 minutes ago, Canopus said:

I always wondered why some High gain antennas are covered like the one on OSIRIS-REx and Juno, where as older Spacecraft don't seem to be build that way. What is the purpose or Advantage of these covers? 

Primarily the blanketing is for thermal control of the spacecraft.  We use Germanium Black Kapton (GBK) which provides better electrostatic dissipation than the gold kind.

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  • 11 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The TAGSAM cover was deployed and verified by measuring the change in mass of the spacecraft by moment of inertia differences.

Also, Bennu is now visualized at >1 pixel for the first time.

Bennu-Oct-2018-Pixel-Zoom.gif

The images represent Bennu at 1.09 pixels, 1.71 pixels and 3.75 pixels, and were obtained on Oct. 13, 14 and 15, respectively. From the first to the last image, OSIRIS-REx’s range to Bennu decreased from around 33,350 km to around 9,750 km.

Edited by IonStorm
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