{"id":3216,"date":"2018-01-18T23:13:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T23:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/52.10.1.109\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2018-01-19T23:24:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T23:24:20","slug":"an-out-of-this-world-mission-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/?p=3216","title":{"rendered":"An out-of-this-world mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSIRIS-REx sets out to touch an asteroid<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Jan Wondra<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small matter of setting out across time and deep space to reach a piece of rocky space debris (whose 500 meter diameter is about the length of a football field), orbit it for several months while picking the perfect spot to touch lightly down, gather up some material from the surface and bring it back to Earth.\u00a0 <\/span>The asteroid, for that, is what it is, is known as Bennu. The vehicle that will accomplish this feat is known as OSIRIS-REx, and it\u2019s been designed and built here in Colorado by Lockheed Martin engineers in its Waterton Canyon facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission goal is to successfully bring back a sample of the asteroid,\u201d said Timothy Linn, chief systems engineer for the OSIRIS-REx project. \u201cBut our real goal is to understand our origins and to understand how this near-Earth object operates, which can improve the safety of future space missions.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The OSIRIS-REx unmanned space vehicle being built in Waterton Canyon is nearly complete. It will ship out to Cape Kennedy Space Center in May and is scheduled to launch on Sept. 8.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a 39-day launch window,\u201d said Gary Napier, Civil Space communications spokesperson for the mission. \u201cThat allows some leeway for bad weather in Florida. And there is some symbolism in that our planned touch-and-go on the asteroid is July 4, 2020.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
To prepare it for the extreme environments of space, OSIRIS-REx undergoes thermal vacuum testing at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Waterton Campus. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trajectory of the launch to what is considered a B-class asteroid is carefully planned. The mission marks only the third time NASA has set out to capture space materials\u2014the others being the Apollo moon missions and the Stardust mission that captured stardust. This launch is important for another reason, as the launch and entire mission will be operated here in Colorado by systems engineers based in Waterton Canyon. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe launch from Earth is a fly-by the moon that gives us extra energy and a boost toward the asteroid,\u201d said Linn. \u201cBennu is one of the best known near-Earth objects among thousands of near-Earth objects. We know a lot about it now because we\u2019ve got a resolution to about three meters\u2014the general topography\u2014but we\u2019ll know more about it once we get there, the mineral content, the shape, and size of particles.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mission engineers describe the collection arm as \u201ca sort of pogo stick. It\u2019s got a spring in the middle of its forearm that will absorb the impact of touching the asteroid so that it doesn\u2019t bounce off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll orbit for several months to pick a touch site, then in a matter of five seconds, pick up a 60-gram sample, about two ounces,\u201d said Linn. \u201cThis is actually a huge sample size that will be distributed to several research facilities in the U.S. and Canada, which has collaborated on the project. We\u2019ll correlate the findings with five other systems, including two spectrometers. One is NASA\u2019s Goddard (spectrometer), the other is at the University of Arizona.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The enormity of the mission cannot be underestimated, according to Lockheed Martin. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 4.5 million-year-old time capsule from the early formation of our solar system,\u201d said Napier. \u201cThe \u2018s\u2019 in OSIRIS-REx is for security. The routes of these small bodies change over time. In fact, solar energy hitting an asteroid can change the orbits of these objects, possibly bringing them into a path crossing a planet\u2019s orbit and we need to understand that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
OSIRIS-REx, seen here in final assembly, will launch in September 2016. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which is a way of saying that if that were to happen and an asteroid threatened life as we know it on Earth, that we\u2019d need a way to stop it. The entire mission is forward-looking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of asteroid retrieval missions is not as far-fetched as you\u2019d think,\u201d said Napier. \u201cThere are private companies waiting in the wings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The perception that aerospace engineers have been dreaming of space since childhood isn\u2019t far off either.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in motors and things that moved,\u201d said Linn. \u201cThat led me to rockets and launching things, which lead me to engineer at CU Boulder, which led me here. OSIRIS-REx is my most exciting project to date, but I\u2019ve worked on the Phoenix Mars Lander, the study of the dark side of the moon, I worked on Genesis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lockheed Martin has made it easy to follow the progress of this Colorado-based mission. Its website www.asteroidmission.org features a startling image of Bennu rotating in space. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis mission is exciting,\u201d said Linn. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing back a sample of an asteroid. Exploring these small bodies with the potential future of human missions is a path forward for human space exploration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OSIRIS-REx sets out to touch an asteroid By Jan Wondra It\u2019s a small matter of setting out across time and deep space to reach a piece of rocky space debris (whose 500 meter diameter is about the length of a football field), orbit it for several months while picking the perfect spot to touch lightly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}