Planets and Moons ID: 12443

OSIRIS-REx Technology: OCAMS

Released on December 7, 2016

NASA is sending the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to explore near-Earth asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich body that may contain clues to the origins of life. When OSIRIS-REx arrives at Bennu in 2018, it will spend over a year orbiting the asteroid and studying it with a set of remote sensing instruments. The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite, or OCAMS, will provide high-resolution images of Bennu, allowing OSIRIS-REx to map the asteroid, determine its mineralogy, and even take close-up pictures of the surface at less than a centimeter per pixel. After OCAMS and its fellow instruments have thoroughly surveyed Bennu, OSIRIS-REx will carry out its most important task: collecting a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth in 2023.

Learn more about OCAMS.
Visit the OSIRIS-REx mission website.

Source Material

For More Information

NASA.gov

Credits

Producer:
Dan Gallagher (USRA)

Writers:
Dan Gallagher (USRA)
Katrina Jackson (USRA)

Videographer:
Symeon Platts (The University of Arizona)

Lead Animator:
Walt Feimer (HTSI)

Animators:
Michael Lentz (USRA)
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA)
Lisa Poje (USRA)

Data Visualizer:
Kel Elkins (USRA)

Scientists:
Dante Lauretta (The University of Arizona)
Bashar Rizk (The University of Arizona)
Jason Dworkin (NASA/GSFC)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center