NARRATOR: The first spacecraft equipped to take a sample
from an asteroid is preparing to lift off from Florida's Space Coast in September on
a mission vital to unwrapping some of the secrets of mysterious near-Earth objects.
Near-Earth objects emit no light of their own, so researchers get few opportunities
to study them as they cross through sunlight that reflects their features to instruments
on the ground.
That's where Osiris-Rex comes in.
Weighing 4,650 pounds when fully fueled, the boxy spacecraft will rocket away from Earth
on a path toward an asteroid called Bennu.
Dante Lauretta: OSIRIS-REx is an awesome acronym that captures
the primary scientific objectives of our program.
It is Origins (seeking answers to clues of the origin of our planet and to the origin
of life), Spectral Interpretation (spectroscopy is a technique we use with telescopes and
spacecraft instruments to determine the composition of an objects surface by having the sample
back on Earth we’ll be able to tell how well that technique works), Resource Identification
(we’re going to a near-Earth asteroid, we’re going to map it with our cameras and our other
science instruments to identify the minerals and chemicals that may be on its surface),
Security (because it’s a near-Earth asteroid there is a small likelihood it may impact
the Earth sometime in the 22nd century.
We’re going to refine its orbit and understand the properties of sunlight and heat that may
change that orbit), Regolith Explorer (regolith is a term for the gravel and dust on the surface
of the asteroid, and our prime objective is to explore that material by bringing it back
to Earth).
NARRATOR: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V has been
stacked at Space Launch Complex 41 to start the spacecraft on its way.
Standing some 19 stories tall, the rocket with the spacecraft protected inside a payload
fairing will fly on a carefully planned course into space.
Tim Dunn: NASA and LSP have a great history of launching
our science missions on Atlas V. It began in 2006, and we have launched 12 critical
science missions on this workhorse launch vehicle.
OSIRIS-REx will be our 13th mission.
NARRATOR: The small spacecraft will go into orbit around
the floating rock and carefully survey its surface, relaying the data back to Earth.
Scientists will select the best place for the spacecraft to reach out its mechanical
arm and tap on the surface to trap dust and material in a tiny canister.
Researchers would like to find material from the original formation of the solar system.
LAURETTA: The primary objective of OSIRIS-REx is to
bring back 60 grams of pristine carbon-rich material from the surface of asteroid Bennu.
We’re really interested in the organic chemistry of these asteroids, and the roles these kinds
of objects play in the origin of life.
NARRATOR: Osiris-Rex will retract its arm and place
the canister in a capsule where it will be protected during the ride back to Earth.
With its mission done, the spacecraft will fly by our home planet in 2023 and release
the capsule holding the asteroid sample.
The capsule, protected by a heat shield and equipped with a parachute, is to fall through
the atmosphere and be retrieved in the American Southwest.
LAURETTA: The OSIRIS-REx mission uses a sample return
capsule, to bring the material back to the surface of the Earth, will land at the Utah
Heston Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City.
NARRATOR: From there, researchers will carefully evaluate
what is expected to be a couple ounces of asteroid that could answer some of our most
fundamental questions about Earth, the solar system and the universe.
Part of the analysis will include a close look at what was found that may have been
picked up on Earth during processing instead of from the asteroid.
Planners thought of that, though, and have a step in place they say will prevent confusion.
Rex Englehardt: In this case we’re doing something a little
bit different that’s never been done before called “contamination knowledge” we’re
able to put plates out there where we have them in the same environment as the spacecraft
and we’ll save them.
In a few years when the sample comes back, we will have these pristine, in storage, and
when we start analyzing the sample we brought back, we can go back and look and see, “Do
we have that, did we see that on the ground or did we bring that back from the asteroid?”
NARRATOR: Teams have been working on the Osiris-Rex
mission for more than 10 years to plan a sample-return flight, develop the spacecraft and get to
this point close to launch.
Engelhardt: I was involved with the original spacecraft
selection process when OSIRIS-Rex won, that selection, and we bought the rocket for it
in 2013, and I’ve been integrating that rocket ever since.
Lauretta: The OSIRIS-REx team has worked really hard
to make this mission a success, and everybody is very excited and enthusiastic.
I can’t wait to send this spacecraft on its journey to Bennu and back, and begin the
next phase of operations.