totm oct 2023 NASA's OSIRIS-REx

[DAL59]

Clarification: Is it actually landing and sampling today, or just entering orbit.

[IonStorm]

Just now, DAL59 said:

Clarification: Is it actually landing and sampling today, or just entering orbit.

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.

 

[Mr. Peabody]

@IonStorm, Considering that Hayabusa 2 will, among other things, return an asteroid sample before OSIRIS-REx, what new data does NASA hope to obtain? What are the major differences between asteroids "Bennu" and "Ryugu?"

[KG3]

I thought this Bennu had a small moon or something or am I mistaken?  If it does is there any sight of it yet?

[cubinator]

15 minutes ago, KG3 said:

I thought this Bennu had a small moon or something or am I mistaken?  If it does is there any sight of it yet?

Looks like this

Otherwise, there's no moon that I'm aware of. Maybe you're thinking of another system.

[Canopus]

2 hours ago, KG3 said:

I thought this Bennu had a small moon or something or am I mistaken?  If it does is there any sight of it yet?

You are probably thinking of Didymos which is a target for an impactor called DART.

Edit: Little correction: the actual impact target will be the smaller companion. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Canopus

[Scotius]

5 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

@IonStorm, Considering that Hayabusa 2 will, among other things, return an asteroid sample before OSIRIS-REx, what new data does NASA hope to obtain? What are the major differences between asteroids "Bennu" and "Ryugu?"

Well, according to ever-useful Wikipedia, Bennu is a typical C-class (carbonaceous) asteroid. It was picked specifically because of that, to study carbon ccomponents on the surface - which might provide important data about space organic chemistry.

Ryugu on the other hand is a bit of anomaly - it belongs to Cg type, which is relatively rare variation. Basically it is placed between abundant C-class, and somewhat rarer G-class asteroids composition wise. Interestingly, Ceres is G-class obiect - so Hayabusa might shed some light on her too

[IonStorm]

7 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

@IonStorm, Considering that Hayabusa 2 will, among other things, return an asteroid sample before OSIRIS-REx, what new data does NASA hope to obtain? What are the major differences between asteroids "Bennu" and "Ryugu?"

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. 

[MarkoeZ]

Congratulations @IonStorm, to you and the entire team, on a very successful first phase!

And just curious, you guys have a high res picture that's slowly dripping in by any chance? I can imagine the upload speeds of Rexy would be kinda limited in a rural area like that

anyway, great job and looking forward to the next phases!

[IonStorm]

On 12/5/2018 at 2:48 PM, MarkoeZ said:

Congratulations @IonStorm, to you and the entire team, on a very successful first phase!

And just curious, you guys have a high res picture that's slowly dripping in by any chance? I can imagine the upload speeds of Rexy would be kinda limited in a rural area like that

anyway, great job and looking forward to the next phases!

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

Edited December 6, 2018 by IonStorm
Added AGU link

[IonStorm]

A new mission summary video for your amusement. 

 

[tater]

 

[IonStorm]

1 hour ago, tater said:

 

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

[Racescort666]

1 hour ago, IonStorm said:

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

Something I found interesting from that article:

Quote

One outlier from the predicted shape model is the size of the large boulder near Bennu’s south pole. The ground-based shape model calculated this boulder to be at least 33 feet (10 meters) in height. Preliminary calculations from OCAMS observations show that the boulder is closer to 164 feet (50 meters) in height, with a width of approximately 180 feet (55 meters).

For reference, the Atlas V 411 that OSIRIS-REx launched on was around 55 m tall.

[cubinator]

What's this "clay" material like? Is it rocky, but with similar composition to clay? If you got it wet, would it be malleable like Earth clay?

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

35 minutes ago, cubinator said:

What's this "clay" material like? Is it rocky, but with similar composition to clay? If you got it wet, would it be malleable like Earth clay?

And the next logical question: How much would people pay for dishes made from Bennu? We're gonna need a bigger TAGSAM, people! 

Actually, more seriously, could you make bricks out of this stuff for some kind of base construction? Hmm...

[IonStorm]

34 minutes ago, cubinator said:

What's this "clay" material like? Is it rocky, but with similar composition to clay? If you got it wet, would it be malleable like Earth clay?

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. 

[cubinator]

2 hours ago, IonStorm said:

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. 

So intriguing. 

I feel an existential connection to asteroids the more we learn about them. These objects hold the materials - the dust, the water, the minerals and organic molecules - which came together and by some force of the universe eventually became us. We are as connected to these asteroids in our star system as to the food we eat. As an aside:

2 hours ago, IonStorm said:

We don't know yet.

This is always my favorite thing to hear from a scientist.

2 hours ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said:

And the next logical question: How much would people pay for dishes made from Bennu? We're gonna need a bigger TAGSAM, people! 

Actually, more seriously, could you make bricks out of this stuff for some kind of base construction? Hmm...

We're coming full circle in the most spectacularly beautiful way I can imagine. Some people will return to eating insects from ceramic dishes, in brick houses, some in pyramids perhaps, most of their working time spent on survival needs. It sounds primitive, and it will be compared to what they will hopefully become, but they will be not in the habitable river valleys of Earth but in the vacuum of space, the Moon, attached to asteroids, and on Mars. The beginning of civilization on Earth will repeat itself in a new way in space.

Edited December 11, 2018 by cubinator

[cubinator]

I dunno, from what I've seen and heard about asteroid and moon regolith, I bet it would do some funny stuff if you mixed it with water. It'd turn into some kind of weird mud, maybe you could harden it in a kiln...Well we know if you let it sit for 4.5 billion years chances are it'll turn into something sentient so we have that.

[tater]

Guys have been making lunar concrete with regolith simulant for years now.

[IonStorm]

9 hours ago, cubinator said:

asteroid and moon regolith

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.

[MaverickSawyer]

So, if one were to set up an orbital brick making operation, asteroids would be a better source of feedstock. Huh.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

 

[MaverickSawyer]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I will admit, that did run through my mind as I typed my previous post. 

[IonStorm]

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