IonStorm

Here is the shape model of Bennu from the November data. Good enough for RSS. Lidar shape model will be later. https://www.asteroidmission.org/updated-bennu-shape-model-3d-files/?fbclid=IwAR1-nVo1w_1ZDJnn3X_aRWSVCXVtNEdnqLGtuRbcCHmvczUPDFSr0-nzpp8

Navigation camera images. Spacecraft pathway. https://www.asteroidmission.org/galleries/spacecraft-imagery/preliminarysurveynavcam-2/

6 cm/s

And orbit has now been achieved https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-enters-close-orbit-around-bennu-breaking-record

The event in the photo is visualized in a new 4k version of the video released 5 years ago.

Preliminary survey is over. Getting ready to orbit on 12/31. This will be the smallest object ever orbited.

Here is the press conference from 12/10/18.

Lunar and carbonaceous asteroid regolith are very different chemically. Both are likely to be angular and dusty, lunar may be finer grain. Lunar is dryish, organic-poor, and igneous, while carbonaceous asteroid should be comparatively wet, organic rich, and sedimentary-like.

We don't know yet. It is likely similar to the phyllosilicates in some meteorites. The OVIRS and OTES spectra show a similarity to CI- or CM-like meteorites. Some of these are about half phyllosilicate. They tend to be friable not malleable. But I've never tried to shape it.

Very exciting: https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-newly-arrived-osiris-rex-spacecraft-already-discovers-water-asteroid

A new mission summary video for your amusement.

We processing data like crazy. The downlink is fast in comparison to New Horizons, but nothing like ISS. Here is a recent image from https://www.asteroidmission.org/20181203_mapcam/. We are saving up for a big release next Monday at the American Geophysical Union: https://www.asteroidmission.org/osiris-rex-agu-2018/ Here is a day by day graphic of the current phase of the mission: https://www.asteroidmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/SPP-Preliminary-Survey-Poster-12-19-17.pdf

Bennu and Ryugu are different objects with different spectra. Bennu is spectrally a "class B" and Ryugu a "class Cg" (both are in the C spectral family) the shapes are about the same and Ryugu is about double the diameter. A comparison of the returned sample will be interesting, the spectral families only describe the reflectance of the top couple microns. Are they related? We will try to find out. Though the JAXA and NASA teams have been sharing information for the last few years, the implementation of the two missions is very different. Hayabusa2 has a different sampling strategy to collect more, but smaller samples than OSIRIS-REx.

Sampling will happen in mid-2020; the first orbit phase will be in January. So neither. This is a burn to stop the approach to Bennu and begin the preliminary survey of Bennu. Bennu is such a small object that ∆V maneuvers are tiny. It is barely orbitable.

It is an average of 3% albedo. Though the image is stretched, there is a lot of variation in darkness. It will be interesting to figure out why the bright spots are bright and the dark spots are dark.

I'm happy to comment publicly, but I don't build rockets, just use the samples and data they provide. I got a A.B. and Ph.D. in biochemistry and did post-doctoral work at NASA Ames on pre-solar ice chemistry and now study meteorite organics at NASA Goddard. I am also project scientist for OSIRIS-REx and department chair of astrochemistry. So this is a very diverse set of experiences. I talk about it in this 8-year old video, before the selection of OSIRIS-REx, https://youtu.be/QDlx8lnAlcM. The best and most fulfilling parts of my job are 1) discovering something totally new, 2) sharing that discovery, and 3) helping connect people so they can achieve more science than I could alone. (Working on a mission gives me all three of those things.) The worst parts are dealing with 1) personnel issues, 2) budgets, and 3) drama. My day to day is highly variable, right now it is a lot of telecons and meetings. In the past it was doing wet chemistry in a lab, now I mostly advise the people doing the lab work. One thing very important in both science and engineering is your writing and public speaking ability. The way you communicate your designs is with a report and a PowerPoint presentation. Many engineers at Goddard attended U. Maryland or Johns Hopkins. They have BS, MS, or PhD. Many had military engineering experience many don't. Scientists almost universally have a PhD and rarely attended school near Goddard. I wish I had taken more geology, speech or debate, and an accounting class--but I'm not sure what I would have given up to do that. Here is a recent brief profile of my career path https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/290/jason-dworkin/ I'm happy to communicate further if it helps. You can also try @Jasonden and other professionals.

There are two copies, one in the Sample Return Capsule, which will return to Earth and eventually reside in the Smithsonian Museum and the other will stay in space on the spacecraft bus. Below are some images of the chip with engraved names being installed on the spacecraft bus. Amusingly, OSIRIS-REx shared a cleanroom with InSight, which lands on Mars on Monday (you can see part of the logo in the second image). You can watch the controllers live here https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/ during the landing.

So the thing about Bennu, is it is much smaller than the smallest moon in KSP and much bigger than the biggest asteroid. Bennu has a diameter of 0.5 km while Gilly is 26 km and a Class E asteroid is about 0.03 km, either way the sampling is more like docking than landing on Mun. Unlike the Mun, actually intercepting it is more difficult, since you cannot rely on just getting captured. Have fun. BTW, in the next few months we should have an accurate shape and image model for the real Bennu, which I hope will be imported into RSS. https://www.asteroidmission.org/bennu-at-300-px/

Cool!

The images on the other side of the head have been released https://www.asteroidmission.org/tagsam-samcam-side-by-side/ As well as a story that includes yours truly. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/762/people-of-osiris-rex/

I've been posting updates on this forum as they come in.

Here is some hardware. The sampling device (TAGSAM) arm was tested in space and the OSIRIS-REx SamCam imaged it. The contamination witness plate doors (one is top center) closed as designed and the camera exposures are set to view it before, during, and after sample collection in 2020. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=tagsam-testing-complete-osiris-rex-prepared-tag-asteroid

OSIRIS-REx has completed its final asteroid approach maneuver (AAM-4). The four burns (two with the main engines, one with the trajectory correction thrusters, and the last with the attitude control system thrusters) slowed the spacecraft from 491 m/s to 4 cm/s relative to Bennu. Preliminary survey maneuver 0 is scheduled for November 30, to position the spacecraft for the start of the preliminary survey phase of the in situ science campaign on December 3. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-first-asteroid-approach-maneuver https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-second-asteroid-approach-maneuver https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-third-asteroid-approach-maneuver https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-fourth-asteroid-approach-maneuver

We are go for rendezvous. No hazards have been detected, so the nominal burn sequence will be deployed to begin encounter on December 3.