totm oct 2023 NASA's OSIRIS-REx

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, IonStorm said:

two possible sources of ice

Again, fascinating: thanks! 

I had heard of the roll, but I would never have thought about ice coming from propellant. 

 

... 

Side note: I'm starting to understand all the checklists!

[AckSed]

Thanks for posting these updates, and that GIF is seriously cinematic.

Question: If you didn't have to keep mass down (say you had ~15t to LEO), but had the same budget, and used commercial off-the-shelf hardware, what could a successor to OSIRIS-REx be like? Where would you send it? I know hardware costs are only a fraction of the program's costs, but it's a significant one all the same.

Edited October 10, 2023 by AckSed

[IonStorm]

2 hours ago, AckSed said:

Question: If you didn't have to keep mass down (say you had ~15t to LEO), but had the same budget, and used commercial off-the-shelf hardware, what could a successor to OSIRIS-REx be like? Where would you send it? I know hardware costs are only a fraction of the program's costs, but it's a significant one all the same.

OSIRIS-REx had a wet mass of 2.1 tonnes. The costs are really development and testing of the hardware--almost entirely labor. Depending on how you define COTS there is no sample return capsule. So I guess you would spend all that mass on fuel to slow enough to enter orbit to dock with Dragon (if that counts at COTS). 

There has been a lot of argument if Ryugu (or perhaps Bennu) is an extinct comet. Since we have never returned unaltered comet material (Stardust dust from Wild 2 was heated upon impact with the aerogel collector), a sample from a comet would be the next step. The CAESAR mission concept (not selected in favor of Dragonfly) would have returned a cold sample from a comet. With more mass I would add active cooling.  For OSIRIS-REx, I would have a sealed SRC (that requires a lot of mass to keep it under vacuum) or just launch a fleet of OSIRIS-REx's to different primitive asteroids or different spots on one. Making a bunch of OSIRIS-RExs would lower the unit cost.

[StrandedonEarth]

2 hours ago, IonStorm said:

just launch a fleet of OSIRIS-REx's to different primitive asteroids or different spots on one. Making a bunch of OSIRIS-RExs would lower the unit cost.

That’s been my view towards asteroid prospecting: relatively inexpensive, mass produced probes launched at every convenient target

[cubinator]

20 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

That’s been my view towards asteroid prospecting: relatively inexpensive, mass produced probes launched at every convenient target

Would be nice to have one on standby for the next interstellar visitor too.

[IonStorm]

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

That’s been my view towards asteroid prospecting: relatively inexpensive, mass produced probes launched at every convenient target

Depending on how you define inexpensive. Both OSIRIS-REx and Psyche cost around $1B each for cost perspective.  I don't know that a cubesat is up to the task and the telecom downlink cost is also not nothing, let alone the launch vehicle. The lesson of faster-better-cheaper (pick two) means that if you want faster and cheaper, you and your financial backers need to be good with a high failure rate. Also with 1.3M asteroids it depends on how you define convenient, there could be a lot of launches with a long travel time. But it would be cool.

[Beccab]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

Would be nice to have one on standby for the next interstellar visitor too.

I'd rather make one for our current one while we still have the chance

[IonStorm]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

Would be nice to have one on standby for the next interstellar visitor too.

I'd love an intercept to an interstellar object. This is difficult though there are some ideas. Remember that, these can be at any inclination, including retrograde, and at very high speeds.  So you need a whole lot of ∆V. You don't have a lot of time from discovery so there probably isn't time to do a bunch of gravity assists.  But I'm just guessing.

Storage costs are also not nothing. The refurbishment of DSCOVR was in the dozens of $M (I don't have a good source on the number and haven't looked too hard) but the 2-year delay of InSight was about $150M ($RY). 

[tater]

Live:

 

 

[tater]

 

Super exciting.

[cubinator]

Hearing that makes me feel like the asteroid is a relative.

[tater]

Or nature's gas station

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

5 hours ago, tater said:

Or nature's gas station

 

Now I'm pumped! 

[tater]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Now I'm pumped! 

I see what you did there.

[cubinator]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:24 PM, IonStorm said:

Do you want 3D files of Bennu for yourself? How about the sampling site before and after it was thrashed by the spacecraft? Well they are all here for the taking. All with the highest resolution data in existence. How about global mosaics? Got those too. 
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5069

This Rubik's Cube is going to be interesting...

[IonStorm]

10 hours ago, cubinator said:

This Rubik's Cube is going to be interesting...

Also suitable for hugging  https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxwvmgu5pYxyFCRWorUCLpQ76j0F9PRSEu?si=nBBC5366t8gBDecC

[StrandedonEarth]

12 hours ago, cubinator said:

This Rubik's Cube is going to be interesting...

The Pink Floyd song  One of These Days  comes to mind, for the single line in the song: "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!"

I'd also bet that while it was being carved apart, at least one person was thinking "Careful with that axe, Eugene"

[Minmus Taster]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:22 PM, IonStorm said:

I'd love an intercept to an interstellar object. This is difficult though there are some ideas. Remember that, these can be at any inclination, including retrograde, and at very high speeds.  So you need a whole lot of ∆V. You don't have a lot of time from discovery so there probably isn't time to do a bunch of gravity assists.  But I'm just guessing.

Storage costs are also not nothing. The refurbishment of DSCOVR was in the dozens of $M (I don't have a good source on the number and haven't looked too hard) but the 2-year delay of InSight was about $150M ($RY). 

Sort of random question but given that both of these objects came from the same general patch of sky based on this graph is it possible that they may somehow be related? Maybe not two chunks of the same object but at least from the same general cluster of stars?

[darthgently]

10 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Sort of random question but given that both of these objects came from the same general patch of sky based on this graph is it possible that they may somehow be related? Maybe not two chunks of the same object but at least from the same general cluster of stars?

What is Sol's prograde direction relative to this spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy and the galaxy itself?

Is our star system moving in the general direction from which they appear to be coming?  Should one expect the distribution of directions from which these are encountered to be biased toward Sol prograde?

[tater]

 

[cubinator]

On 11/11/2023 at 9:26 PM, cubinator said:

This Rubik's Cube is going to be interesting...

Bennu's irregular shape is going to be very helpful in solving this puzzle, as each piece usually sticks out quite prominently when it's in the wrong place. I only really had trouble identifying two of the eight corners as I was assembling it. Currently I have to put the edges together and finish printing the centers.

[cubinator]

Spoiler

Here it is! How well do you know Bennu?

[StrandedonEarth]

Well, the early landing was explained by a wiring error causing a drogue malfunction; fortunately the main chute was up to the task.

OSIRIS-REx parachute deployment affected by wiring error - SpaceNews

[Vl3d]

Also: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/12/nasas-asteroid-mission-struck-its-target-but-then-dodged-a-bullet/

[IonStorm]

Check yo staging