OSIRIS-REx (New Frontiers 3)

Launch data:

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver Platform   Operator  University of Arizona for NASA Mass at launch  1528 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Equipment  Reentry capsule Solar array   Stabilization   Propulsion   DC power   Design lifetime  + 7 yrs

Credit: OSIRIS-REX

Description:

• The target asteroid – named (101955) Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36) – measures 575 meters in diameter. Bennu is a time capsule from the early solar system rich with organic compounds that may have seeded life on Earth.
• The OSIRIS-REx mission is budgeted for approximately $800 million, excluding the launch vehicle. The OSIRIS-REx mission will return the first samples ever taken from a special type of asteroid holding clues to the origin of the solar system and likely organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth. OSIRIS-REx will also investigate an object potentially hazardous to humanity. Bennu has a one-in-1,800 chance of impacting the Earth in the year 2182.
• Spending over a year exploring 1999 RQ36 before acquiring samples, OSIRIS-REx will provide geologic context essential to expanding our understanding of the asteroid-comet continuum. The mission will provide near live coverage of 1999 RQ36 operations and sample return to Earth. OSIRIS-Rex will collect a sample of 60 g to 2 kg of cometary material. The samples will return to Earth in the year 2023.
• The return to Earth of pristine samples with known geologic context will enable precise analyses that cannot be duplicated by spacecraft-based instruments. Pristine carbonaceous materials have never before been analyzed in laboratories on Earth. The Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory will be one of the first labs to receive the samples.
• The OSIRIS-REx instrument suite includes:
  • the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) by the University of Arizona;
  • the OSIRIS REx Visible-Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) instrument by NASA Goddard;
  • the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) by Arizona State University; and
  • the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) by the Canadian Space Agency.

Mission details:

• NASA′s OSIRIS-Rex space probe made a 17200 km flyby of Earth on Sep 22, 2017 with closest approach at 1653 UTC. It left the Earth′s gravitational Hill sphere on Sep 25 at 0849 UTC and is now in a 0.87 x 1.31 AU x 6.4 deg solar orbit on course for rendezvous with minor planet (101955) Bennu in Aug 2018.
• NASA′s OSIRIS-Rex space probe made a 17200 km flyby of Earth on Sep 22, 2017 with closest approach at 16:53 UTC. It left the Earth′s gravitational Hill sphere on Sep 25 at 0849 UTC and is now in a 0.87 x 1.31 AU x 6.4 deg solar orbit on course for rendezvous with minor planet (101955) Bennu in 2018.
• On Oct 15, 2018 the AAM-2 burn changed the probe′s speed by 141 m/s and reduced its Bennu-relative velocity to 5.2 m/s. On Oct 17 the 1.1 kg, 0.4 x 0.4m TAGSAM sampler head cover plate was ejected into solar orbit. Current heliocentric orbit is 0.896 x 1.355 AU x 6.0 deg.
• On Oct 18, 2018 the probe was 5500 km from Bennu, and by Nov 6 it was only 170 km out.
• Osiris-REX continues approaching Bennu, and reached a range of 78 km as of Nov 26, 2018.
• The OSIRIS-REx space probe has arrived at (101955) Bennu. It entered the asteroid′s 35-km Hill sphere at around 0h UTC on Dec 1, 2018 and made a station keeping burn at range 20 km at 1700 UTC Dec 3.
• On Dec 31, 2018 at 1943:55 UTC it carried out an orbit insertion burn to enter a 1.4 x 2.0 km orbit around the asteroid.
• The OSIRIS-REX space program remains in orbit around Bennu. It began the Recon B mission phase in January 2020, with 620m altitude flybys of sites Nightingale and Osprey on Jan 22 and Feb 13 respectively. The Recon C phase is now underway. On Mar 3 at 1900 UTC the probe departed from its 1.4 km altitude orbit to perform a `swoop' over the Nightingale candidate landing site. It passed only 251.6 metres above Bennu′s surface at 2129:48 UTC Mar 3 and reentered the 1.4 km orbit with a burn at 0005 UTC Mar 4. A 250m pass of site Osprey is expected in May.
• On Apr 14, 2020 O-REX carreid out a Checkpoint Rehearsal; at 1852 UTC it maneuvered from a 1.0 x 1.0 km orbit to a 0.13 x 1.0 km one. At 2251 UTC at 0.13 km altitude it made the `checkpoint burn' to begin descent to the asteroid. Then at 2300 UTC, as it reached a record close distance of 75m to the asteroid surface, it made a preplanned abort of the approach in a `backaway burn' and began its return to the 1 km orbit. The TAGSAM sampler was deployed and retracted during the operation.

External links:

• AmericaSpace: 210511-OSIRIS-REx Begins Long Journey Home with First-Ever Asteroid Sample from Bennu
• AmericaSpace: 210131-All Systems Go for OSIRIS-REx Departure from Asteroid Bennu
• OSIRIS-REX: Why Bennu?
• OSIRIS-REX: Photographs
• Satellite tracking: Real time satellite tracking