OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return

[MarkoeZ]

On 5/1/2016 at 1:14 AM, Jetski said:

Just a suggestion - HyperEdit a probe core next to Bennu (outside its SOI, if it even has one) and then use that as a target to approach it like a docking is intended.

Hmm, nice idea  Gonna try that.

And realized i never posted an image of my design, stock parts + MJ is on there for the test flights . Slightly lighter than the real thing atm, but was planning to refine the design after the test flights.

Spoiler

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by MarkoeZ

[archenemy_6]

Has anyone read anything on this satellite?

I actually just heard about it today and did a little reading. It will be going to an asteroid and scanning it's surface and taking a sample.

If anyone has Snapchat you add NASA and you can see them uncrateing the satellite.

I've never seen it before so I thought it was pretty interesting.

[Snark]

Well, perhaps you could ask the Project Scientist for the mission, since he plays KSP and is here on the forums. 

Any comment, @IonStorm, a.k.a. Dr. Dworkin?

[archenemy_6]

oh wow I didn't even know that. That's really cool.
All those CAD drawings are awesome. lots of detail.
Makes me want to try and build something like it in 1.1.2

I was thinking earlier how I wished I could come up with all these cool acronyms like NASA does. I really like the name OSIRIS-REx

[NotAgain]

If anyone wants to use a nice, relatively stockalike Atlas V, and the Centaur upper stage (twin and single engine variants available), the Bluedog Design Bureau mod has a lovely one.

[IonStorm]

On May 21, 2016 at 6:27 PM, archenemy_6 said:

I was thinking earlier how I wished I could come up with all these cool acronyms like NASA does. I really like the name OSIRIS-REx

I'm glad you like the name.  OSIRIS-REx was based on the mission objectives:

• Origins:  Return and analyze a sample of pristine carbonaceous asteroid regolith
• Spectral Interpretation:  Provide ground truth for telescopic data of the entire asteroid population
• Resource Identification:  Map the chemistry and mineralogy of a primitive carbonaceous asteroid
• Security:  Measure the Yarkovsky effect on a potentially hazardous asteroid

Plus Egyptology is cool.  We proposed OSIRIS twice in the NASA Discovery mission line, but the Agency selected nobody for our first cycle then Grail for our second.  The biggest problem was we couldn't fit in the cost box for Discovery.  We proposed for New Frontiers, with about double the budget and as a joke someone added REX to the end to signify it was bigger.  The joke stuck, so we decided that REx must mean:

• Regolith Explorer:  Document the regolith at the sampling site at scales down to the sub-cm

NASA does love their acronyms.  I'm fond of this passage

Quote

 

The first thing we had to learn was the crazy acronyms that NASA uses all over the place: “SRMs” are the solid rocket motors, which make up most of the “SRBs,” the solid rocket boosters. The “SSMEs” are the space shuttle main engines; they burn “LH” (liquid hydrogen) and “LOX” (liquid oxygen), which are stored in the “ET,” the external tank.

Everything's got letters. And not just the big things: practically every valve has an acronym, so they said, “We'll give you a dictionary for the acronyms—it's really very simple.” Simple, sure, but the dictionary is a great, big, fat book that you've gotta keep looking through for things like “HPFTP” (high-pressure fuel turbopump) and “HPOTP” (high-pressure oxygen turbopump).

“What Do You Care What Other People Think?” Further Adventures of a Curious Character  Richard P. Feynman 1989

 

Anyway, the spacecraft (or s/c) shipped to NASA KSC Friday and final preparations for launch September 8, 2016 at 7:05 EDT are underway.  

I am very much looking forward to your OSIRIS-REx model in KSP.

[insert_name]

so @IonStorm how is it going to collect the samples, is it going to land or just brush against it?

[IonStorm]

1 minute ago, insert_name said:

so @IonStorm how is it going to collect the samples, is it going to land or just brush against it?

The spacecraft touches the surface of Bennu with what looks like an old car air filter on the end of a 3-m long pogo stick.  This is called the Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).  The spacecraft slowly falls under Bennu's tiny gravity and touches the surface with the TAGSAM head.  Upon contact a jet of nitrogen gas is released to rocks and dust from the top couple centimeters into the TAGSAM head and trapped between a filter and mylar check valve.  At the same time steel Velcro pads will collect surface dust.  The pogo springs back and the thrusters fire the spacecraft a safe distance from Bennu.  The contact takes less than 5 seconds.

After sampling the spacecraft measures the mass of the sample by spinning with the arm extended to determine the change in inertia since before sapling.  If there was a problem with collection, there are an additional two bottles of nitrogen for two more sampling attempts.  If everything checks out the head is stowed in the sample return canister (SRC) and then severed from the arm.

More at https://dslauretta.com/2015/04/20/development-of-the-osiris-rex-sampling-system-tagsam-and-the-src/

and

 

[insert_name]

Wow that cool, is the spacecraft going to reenter as well or will it be able to continue exploring 

[IonStorm]

5 minutes ago, insert_name said:

is the spacecraft going to reenter as well or will it be able to continue exploring 

Like on Stardust, the SRC is spin-stabalized and ejected from the spacecraft.  The SRC lands at the Utah Test and Training Range (Utah, USA) 8:53 am MDT September 24, 2023, while the spacecraft is diverted into heliocentric orbit.  After that the spacecraft is available to be used as NASA sees fit--though at that point the warranty would have expired .

[Matuchkin]

What are the parameters for an asteroid supposed to be in Realism Overhaul, exactly? Just asking. In my save, there are 3 captured in Earth orbit. There are also a crepe-ton of them outside Earth's SOI, that are about to fall into said SOI.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Matuchkin

[IonStorm]

Here is a video of the spacecraft being spin-balanced at K(ennedy)SC.  It is critical to keep the center of area and the center of mass at the same spot since the solar pressure close to the force of gravity at Bennu.  For anyone making an OSIRIS-REx model, this should give a nice view.

 

Edited June 14, 2016 by IonStorm

[Faile]

Someone earlier posted an excellent idea on how to circumvent the KSP engine limitations for approach, hyperedit a probe core to bennu and use it as a target for approaching

[Dunrana]

On 3/31/2016 at 10:31 AM, KillAshley said:

Simply install Kopernicus and then download the .zip file below and extract it into your GameData folder. It will run by itself from then.

Download

The download link is giving me a 404 error.  I REALLY want to try this challenge with my New Horisons install.  

[insert_name]

wow this thread was featured by nasa, and @Matuchkin was mentioned on the article

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/gamers-tackle-virtual-asteroid-sampling-mission

[Kesselya]

13 hours ago, Dunrana said:

The download link is giving me a 404 error.  I REALLY want to try this challenge with my New Horisons install.  

Same here =( I was super excited to find this, and was looking forward to trying out this mission.  KillAshley is pretty awesome, so I imagine it'll be fixed soon =)

[KillAshley]

unfortunately it seems i accidentally deleted the files while cleaning my dropbox out. I don't have any kind of backup available unfortunately

perhaps there is someone out there who has a copy of it and will re upload it for me

EDIT:

luckily the file was still in my recent deleted files so i was able to restore it. link should work again now!

Edited June 15, 2016 by KillAshley

[JonathanPerregaux]

NASA could just use the HyperEdit add-on. Easy peasy. I'll show myself out now...

[DaMachinator]

I'll try this, although I'll probably try it with my Spartan Space Program install, minus RemoteTech because that would mean about a month of writing kOS scripts and/or getting a comms network up.

insert shameless plug here

--------------

From watching the video of the trajectory, it looks like the one-way trip time is about 1.5 years. Is this correct?

(For my year estimate I was watching Earth's orbit.)

Edited June 15, 2016 by DaMachinator

[IonStorm]

35 minutes ago, DaMachinator said:

From watching the video of the trajectory, it looks like the one-way trip time is about 1.5 years. Is this correct?

(For my year estimate I was watching Earth's orbit.)

This schedule from https://dslauretta.com/2015/02/08/the-osiris-rex-heavy-launch-opportunity/ is a bit out of date, but the arrival and departure dates are still accurate, so closer to two years to "arrive."  The definition of arrive depends on if you define it as first imaging by a camera, navigating based on Bennu landmarks, or entering an orbit.  This is between 712 and 826 days in this figure.  (We have since moved around some margin based on solar distance, Sun-Bennu-Earth angle for telecom, and "human factors" aka letting people sleep a little.)  

A complexity I think ignored by RemoteTech (though I haven't done much outside stock KSP myself) is there are certain positions a spacecraft cannot be in.  Many spacecraft, such as OSIRIS-REx  (or Hubble for that matter) have "keep-out" zones to prevent the cameras and other optical instruments from looking at the Sun and damaging them. Since the OSIRIS-REx high-gain antenna (HGA) is fixed there are orientations where pointing the antenna at Earth also risks pointing the instruments at the Sun.  We do have movable solar arrays (S/A) so the constraint of pointing the HGA at Earth, not pointing the instrument deck at the Sun, but pointing the S/A at the Sun is easier for us.  RemoteTech might handle the problem of the Sun being between the Earth and the spacecraft, I don't recall.

Good luck!

[Dman979]

Hi, @IonStorm!

This seems like a really cool challenge, and I'm definitely interested in participating.

I wonder if it's possible to let us know the times for any midcouse corrections, if there are any. I'd like to match that up, if I can.

Also, if I read correctly, the due date is in September? Is that right?

[Jetski]

Cool!  NASA mentioned us!  Ok, now let's see a few more attempts at actually doing this guys  Ideally with @KillAshley 's for real mod, not just my hacked asteroid.  

[IonStorm]

1 hour ago, Dman979 said:

I wonder if it's possible to let us know the times for any midcouse corrections, if there are any. I'd like to match that up, if I can.

Details are in a presentation by our Deputy Systems Engineer, Ron Mink at http://gsfcir.gsfc.nasa.gov/colloquia/4942/touchstone-the-osiris-rex-design-reference-mission at about 22:45 into the lecture.  The first Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-1) is January 9, 2017.  There is an Earth Gravity Assist (EGA) September 22, 2017.  DSM-2 is November 21, 2017.  

1 hour ago, Dman979 said:

Also, if I read correctly, the due date is in September? Is that right?

I picked launch+30 days as the due date, which puts the due date no earlier than October 8, 2016 (depending on the weather in Florida the previous month).  If that is widely believed to be insufficient, I can be persuaded to extend it

P.S. Congratulations on going to Philmont.

[DaMachinator]

18 hours ago, IonStorm said:

This schedule from https://dslauretta.com/2015/02/08/the-osiris-rex-heavy-launch-opportunity/ is a bit out of date, but the arrival and departure dates are still accurate, so closer to two years to "arrive."  The definition of arrive depends on if you define it as first imaging by a camera, navigating based on Bennu landmarks, or entering an orbit.  This is between 712 and 826 days in this figure.  (We have since moved around some margin based on solar distance, Sun-Bennu-Earth angle for telecom, and "human factors" aka letting people sleep a little.)  

A complexity I think ignored by RemoteTech (though I haven't done much outside stock KSP myself) is there are certain positions a spacecraft cannot be in.  Many spacecraft, such as OSIRIS-REx  (or Hubble for that matter) have "keep-out" zones to prevent the cameras and other optical instruments from looking at the Sun and damaging them. Since the OSIRIS-REx high-gain antenna (HGA) is fixed there are orientations where pointing the antenna at Earth also risks pointing the instruments at the Sun.  We do have movable solar arrays (S/A) so the constraint of pointing the HGA at Earth, not pointing the instrument deck at the Sun, but pointing the S/A at the Sun is easier for us.  RemoteTech might handle the problem of the Sun being between the Earth and the spacecraft, I don't recall.

Good luck!

RemoteTech does handle signal loss because something is in the way, but not that pointing sensitive instruments at the sun is a bad idea. There is a mod, called CactEye, which adds telescopes...don't point them at the sun.

Also, if I'm really crazy, I might try this with no manual control at all, instead writing a kOS script to run the entire mission.

Edited June 16, 2016 by DaMachinator

[NotAgain]

A) Is there a working Kopernicus Bennu mod for 1.1.2?

B) If anyone wants a nice Atlas V and Centaur (Twin and Single engine variants) check out the Bluedog Design Bureau mod by @CobaltWolf 

Thanks in advance!

Edited June 16, 2016 by NotAgain
SP&G