asteroid Bennu is a fascinating object
it records our solar system’s earliest
history contains information about the
origins of life and has uncertainties in
its orbit that leaves a small
possibility of impacting earth late in
the 22nd century these properties make
Benny the perfect target for NASA’s
osiris-rex asteroid sample return
mission it’s a great adventure to
explore in unknown world we’re gonna
reach out and touch it and we’re gonna
bring treasure back to earth for
scientific analysis to me it doesn’t get
any more exciting than that
there is a huge scientific payoff of
delivering a sample of asteroid Bennu
directly into the hands of scientists we
want to understand the origin of the
earth the origin of the moon the other
terrestrial planets but the earliest
histories of those bodies is wiped out
the asteroids record the earliest stages
of the solar system so it really is a
time capsule from the very dawn of the
history of our solar system my dream is
that we find something that’s unique
that’s not represented in our meteorite
collection and is really organic rich
material on the surfaces asteroid that
holds all kinds of scientific treasures
about origin life and organic molecular
evolution in the solar system in
addition to the planetary science
sending a spacecraft to asteroid Bennu
will let us better understand the orbit
of this near-earth object Venu is four
to five thousand times more massive than
the meteor that exploded above Chile
ovens Grusha
in 2013 and there’s a small chance that
Ben who could hit us late in the next
century depending on how its orbit
evolved in order to accurately predict
its future orbital evolution we have to
not only understand the force of gravity
but thermal forces on the asteroid can
significantly alter its future path so
we’re gonna study not only the thermal
emission coming off of Venu but we’re
also gonna build up a global model to
make sure we understand the theory that
underlies this and so that we can use it
to accurately predict where Ben is going
to be in the future and apply it to
other potentially hazardous asteroids to
really help us understand the impact
hazard
osiris-rex will launch in September 2016
and arrive at asteroid Bennu in 2018
once the team is ready they will use the
touch-and-go sample acquisition
mechanism tagged Sam to grab a sample
off the surface we have a unique design
where we put this tag Sam device onto
the surface of the asteroid and then we
blow down high-pressure nitrogen gas
kind of add to take the soil and then
basically scoop it up in a giant air
filter that whole process takes five
seconds so it’s kind of get in get the
sample and get out of there there’s good
reason to think this approach will work
what are the challenges of sampling an
asteroid is navigating in a low gravity
environment and with so little gravity
objects have a tendency to bounce our
design is to bounce off the surface of
the asteroid in fact we’ve got a spring
in the forearm of our tanks and device
which is acting lid
like a pogo stick to push us off the
surface of the asteroid after we make
that initial contact so from everything
that I’ve seen trying to bounce off the
surface of the asteroid is the easiest
way to get that material once osiris-rex
delivers the asteroid sample to Earth in
2023 it will have brought back the
largest sample of an extraterrestrial
body since the Apollo missions and like
the moon rocks from Apollo this sample
will be studied for decades to come with
ever increasing technology this is
really a treasure of information about
the history of our solar system and will
not only solve the scientific questions
that we’re asking today but those that
people will be asking for many
generations into the future
you
it records our solar system’s earliest
history contains information about the
origins of life and has uncertainties in
its orbit that leaves a small
possibility of impacting earth late in
the 22nd century these properties make
Benny the perfect target for NASA’s
osiris-rex asteroid sample return
mission it’s a great adventure to
explore in unknown world we’re gonna
reach out and touch it and we’re gonna
bring treasure back to earth for
scientific analysis to me it doesn’t get
any more exciting than that
there is a huge scientific payoff of
delivering a sample of asteroid Bennu
directly into the hands of scientists we
want to understand the origin of the
earth the origin of the moon the other
terrestrial planets but the earliest
histories of those bodies is wiped out
the asteroids record the earliest stages
of the solar system so it really is a
time capsule from the very dawn of the
history of our solar system my dream is
that we find something that’s unique
that’s not represented in our meteorite
collection and is really organic rich
material on the surfaces asteroid that
holds all kinds of scientific treasures
about origin life and organic molecular
evolution in the solar system in
addition to the planetary science
sending a spacecraft to asteroid Bennu
will let us better understand the orbit
of this near-earth object Venu is four
to five thousand times more massive than
the meteor that exploded above Chile
ovens Grusha
in 2013 and there’s a small chance that
Ben who could hit us late in the next
century depending on how its orbit
evolved in order to accurately predict
its future orbital evolution we have to
not only understand the force of gravity
but thermal forces on the asteroid can
significantly alter its future path so
we’re gonna study not only the thermal
emission coming off of Venu but we’re
also gonna build up a global model to
make sure we understand the theory that
underlies this and so that we can use it
to accurately predict where Ben is going
to be in the future and apply it to
other potentially hazardous asteroids to
really help us understand the impact
hazard
osiris-rex will launch in September 2016
and arrive at asteroid Bennu in 2018
once the team is ready they will use the
touch-and-go sample acquisition
mechanism tagged Sam to grab a sample
off the surface we have a unique design
where we put this tag Sam device onto
the surface of the asteroid and then we
blow down high-pressure nitrogen gas
kind of add to take the soil and then
basically scoop it up in a giant air
filter that whole process takes five
seconds so it’s kind of get in get the
sample and get out of there there’s good
reason to think this approach will work
what are the challenges of sampling an
asteroid is navigating in a low gravity
environment and with so little gravity
objects have a tendency to bounce our
design is to bounce off the surface of
the asteroid in fact we’ve got a spring
in the forearm of our tanks and device
which is acting lid
like a pogo stick to push us off the
surface of the asteroid after we make
that initial contact so from everything
that I’ve seen trying to bounce off the
surface of the asteroid is the easiest
way to get that material once osiris-rex
delivers the asteroid sample to Earth in
2023 it will have brought back the
largest sample of an extraterrestrial
body since the Apollo missions and like
the moon rocks from Apollo this sample
will be studied for decades to come with
ever increasing technology this is
really a treasure of information about
the history of our solar system and will
not only solve the scientific questions
that we’re asking today but those that
people will be asking for many
generations into the future
you
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