Jump to content

NASA's OSIRIS-REx

archenemy_6

By archenemy_6
in Science & Spaceflight

 Share

Recommended Posts

IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted

A busy week for OSIRIS-REx.  The TAG arm has been unstowed and wrist articulated (see position in the image), another successful breaking maneuver (two 2.6 m/sec burns), new images of Bennu are scheduled to be released this week.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
59 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Nice! Do you get to be in the room when the images come in, @IonStorm?

The science downlink comes to the Science Processing and Operations Center (SPOC) in Tucson, AZ, USA via the Deep Space Network (DSN).  I can VPN into the SPOC from anywhere.  I have sat in a SPOC operations room and watched telemetry before (for example when the REXIS cover opened, below image [ITAR/IP redacted] (the red alarms were expected, so don't worry about them)) but not usually.  Spacecraft operations, like burns, are conducted at the Mission Operations Center (MOC) at Lockheed Martin, Denver, CO.  Today I watched a live stream of the telemetry downlink during the burn today while I did other work.  It is cool, but I don't add value to the mission by watching.  Since my expertise is in sample analysis, not imaging, spectra, navigation, etc., I gladly let the experts analyse the data and I enjoy their reports.

qWGUInU.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dman979

Dman979

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, IonStorm said:

 

qWGUInU.jpg

 

There is less space paraphernalia than I expected to see at a NASA office, but there are more people sleeping with dragon facemasks than I expected to see. All in all, it looks like a normal office in the government.

4/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Dman979 said:

There is less space paraphernalia than I expected to see at a NASA office, but there are more people sleeping with dragon facemasks than I expected to see. All in all, it looks like a normal office in the government.

4/10

It's at the University of Arizona, so a state not federal government office.  The room we're in is all work and no play.  Not so through the window where you see Pen Rex, the unofficial mascot, guarding donuts as I recall. https://twitter.com/rex_pen

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, MinimumSky5 said:

@IonStormGiven that Ryugu and Bennu seem very similar in overall shape, do you think that this is going to be the most common shape for rubble pile asteroid to relax into, if they have a moderate rotation rate? 

I have no doubt that there will be a manuscript written about this.  The similarities are striking.  We'll find out next week or so if Bennu's boulder density is as high as Ryugu.  Another point is that this is the first time that the radar model of an asteroid has been confirmed optically, and it was remarkably accurate.  We'll be generating a high resolution shape model in the coming year.  Naturally, this will be available (as is Ryugu's) for adding to KSP RSS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
James Kerman

James Kerman

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, IonStorm said:

you folks are getting tired of the updates, I can stop.

Please don't, Mate.  I love getting increasingly stronger doses of Bennu on a daily basis.

I would also like to know a little about what inspired you to become involved in space exploration and what it feels like to see OSIRIS REx really starting to perform it's mission.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

That’s quite the boulder sitting on the bottom (southern?) hemi-roid. Any estimate on its size?

Amazingly, that is the same boulder predicted by the 2011 radar study.  The asteroid is about 500m across, so maybe 20-50m.  There will be a detailed lidar model (courtesy of the Canadian lidar, OLA), which can be imported into real solar system at some point :D.  The image is shown with the Bennu's north pole up, which is in the same direction as the solar system south.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, James Kerman said:

I would also like to know a little about what inspired you to become involved in space exploration and what it feels like to see OSIRIS-REx really starting to perform its mission.

I'm interested in the origin of life and going to an asteroid is a good way to study prebiotic chemistry without the contamination of the biosphere and look at the processes active in the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.  I also had formative years exposed to the later Apollo missions.  I've been working on OSIRIS-REx (and its precursor concepts) since 2004, this is a huge milestone to getting the sample in 2023.  It is a relief to see Bennu consistent with our predictions and crossing off risks as everything continues to go flawlessly (fingers crossed). 

I find it to be thrilling and nostalgic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, The Dunatian said:

@IonStorm, What it the worst case scenario that could happen at this point in time? I'm sure most of us remember the fate of the Rosetta Lander. Are there any redundancies in case the sample acquisition does not go as planned?

There are so many checks to rehearsals.  Everything is slow, deliberate, and careful.  One redundancy is that there are 3 gas bottles.  If the sample collection does not meet requirements, we can try two more times.  Also, we will have enough time to reconstruct what went wrong if we need to do it again.  Think of it in KSP terms: 

  1. Mission Control puts out a contract to do one of a list of missions
  2. Players write a proposal to compete to win the contract 
  3. The next year, mission control selects three who compete again with a more detailed proposal
  4. Mission control selects one and hires a panel of experts to pick at the details of the design and budget for three years with the objective of reducing risk.  They also pick a rocket for you based on your requirements.
  5. Then you start building and testing the spacecraft for two more years.  
  6. Launch
  7. Do science

From steps 4-7 there are weekly reports, monthly reviews, and annual decision points (with the option to cancel or pause the mission).  This is designed to look at every worst case scenario and design mitigations.  Not that nothing bad can happen, like Philae, which suffered multiple overlapping problems (thruster, harpoon, unlucky rock) but still did some great science. 

See http://caesar.cornell.edu/ for the next mission (currently at step 3, above).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted

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.

  1. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-first-asteroid-approach-maneuver
  2. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-second-asteroid-approach-maneuver
  3. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-third-asteroid-approach-maneuver
  4. https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-osiris-rex-executes-fourth-asteroid-approach-maneuver

Orbit-Diagram-11-12-18.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted

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.

SamCam-TAGSAM-111418-e1542388875849.png

https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=tagsam-testing-complete-osiris-rex-prepared-tag-asteroid

Link to comment
Share on other sites
IonStorm

IonStorm

Posted
Posted
On 11/16/2018 at 3:23 PM, IonStorm said:

Here is some hardware.  The sampling device (TAGSAM) arm was tested in space and the OSIRIS-REx SamCam imaged it. 

The images on the other side of the head have been released

TAGSAM-SamCam-side-by-side.png

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/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...