OSIRIS-REx: Sample Return from Asteroid (101955) Bennu

Abstract

In May of 2011, NASA selected the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission as the third mission in the New Frontiers program. The other two New Frontiers missions are New Horizons, which explored Pluto during a flyby in July 2015 and is on its way for a flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019, and Juno, an orbiting mission that is studying the origin, evolution, and internal structure of Jupiter. The spacecraft departed for near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu aboard an United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 evolved expendable launch vehicle at 7:05 p.m. EDT on September 8, 2016, on a seven-year journey to return samples from Bennu. The spacecraft is on an outbound-cruise trajectory that will result in a rendezvous with Bennu in August 2018. The science instruments on the spacecraft will survey Bennu to measure its physical, geological, and chemical properties, and the team will use these data to select a site on the surface to collect at least 60 g of asteroid regolith. The team will also analyze the remote-sensing data to perform a detailed study of the sample site for context, assess Bennus resource potential, refine estimates of its impact probability with Earth, and provide ground-truth data for the extensive astronomical data set collected on this asteroid. The spacecraft will leave Bennu in 2021 and return the sample to the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) on September 24, 2023.Comment: 89 pages, 39 figures, submitted to Space Science Reviews - OSIRIS-REx special issu

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and InfraRed Spectrometer (OVIRS): Spectral Maps of the Asteroid Bennu

“…The full scientific rationale for the OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu is given in detail in another paper in this volume (Lauretta et al 2017). The primary goal of the mission is to return a pristine sample from Bennu, a primitive carbonaceous asteroid.…”

“…The internal sources allow regular monitoring of the instrument's relative calibration over wavelengths from 0.6 to 4 μm, while the external sources provide periodic checks on the absolute spectral and radiance calibration over all wavelengths. The terrestrial and lunar calibrations will occur on the OSIRIS-REx flyby of Earth in 2017 (see Lauretta et al 2017, this issue, for details). The on-board solar radiance calibrations will be carried out occasionally by using the spacecraft control system to point the solar calibration port at the Sun.…”

Overcoming the Challenges Associated with Image‐Based Mapping of Small Bodies in Preparation for the OSIRIS‐REx Mission to (101955) Bennu

“…The initial images of Bennu are acquired during a tightly scripted Navigation Phase of the mission, which takes place in three parts: Approach, Preliminary Survey, and Orbital A (Lauretta et al, 2017). Each part of the Navigation Phase is intended to provide increasing knowledge of the asteroid's ephemeris, gravity field, and shape to support the transition from star-based to landmark-based optical navigation (Wibben et al, 2017).…”

“…The auxiliary role of remote sensing in support of the primary objective of sample return makes OSIRIS-REx somewhat unique among planetary missions. By combining coordinated observations from the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS; Rizk et al, 2018), the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA; Daly et al, 2017), the OSIRIS-REx Visible and InfraRed Spectrometer (OVIRS; Reuter et al, 2018), the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES; Christensen et al, 2018), the REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS; Masterson et al, 2018), and the OSIRIS-REx radio communication system (McMahon et al, 2018), the mission produces four maps of decision-making properties: deliverability, safety, sampleability, and scientific value (Lauretta et al, 2017). Each of these maps play a key role in selecting the OSIRIS-REx sample-site.…”

Broadband Measurements of the Complex Permittivity of Carbonaceous Asteroid Regolith Analog Materials

“…B-type asteroids are thought to be some of the most primitive carbonaceous asteroids with compositions relatively close to the solar nebula (Lauretta et al, 2015). OSIRIS-REx plans to study Bennu in orbit using a suite of instruments including optical cameras, spectrometers, and a laser altimeter before acquiring a sample of regolith from the surface and sending it back to Earth (Lauretta et al, 2017).…”