>> Hello, everyone.
I'm from the Office of
COMMUNICATION.
I am here at lockheed martin.
Yesterday OSIRIS-REx successfully
made contact with the surface of asteroid Bennu.
contact with the surface of asteroid Bennu.
For delivery to earth in 2023.
To share some remarks with us
and tell us what happened
yesterday and what is coming up
for the mission we have with us
today Jim bridenstine, NASA
administrator, NASA HEADQUARTERS
whoingly join us by phone.
ASSOCIATE administrator who will
join us by phone.
OSIRIS-REx principal
investigator university of
Arizona.
And sandy friend, MISSION
operations manager.
We'll start with the
administrator bridenstine
joining us from his phone.
Administrator bridenstine, we
turn it over to you.
>> Well, thank you.
It's an amazing day.
I just saw the first images of
OSIRIS-REx touching down and
it was every bit as beautiful as
I thought it would be.
What an amazing accomplishment
by amazing people at this time.
We think about the challenges
ever getting OSIRIS-REx PW-LGT
and lunched.
IT is a project NASA and the
university of Arizona and
LOCKHEED martin have been
collaborating on since 2011.
Here we are with this really
stunning achievement.
This team broke the record for
being able to orbit the smallest
object, closer than any object
has been orbited before.
When we got there we learned so
much about how rough the train
was, which was not anticipated.
How small of a landing area we
actually AND ultMATEly being
able to use this precision
navigation CAPABILITY that way
out performed what anybody
believed what could be done.
I know the people who built it
believed in it 100%.
It was an amazing day yesterday.
When you watch it land on
a parking spot.
The area was about the size of
two parking spaces side by side
and landed just as it should
have.
We didn't get five OR 10 seconds
on the surface, we got 15
seconds.
We'll be learning more about how
much sample and things like
that.
It went as well as it could have
gone.
Id it yesterday and I will say
it again.
The OSIRIS-REx out performed
in every way.
I wanted to make sure I
congratulated the teams and you
guys all made not just the
United States of America proud
but humanity proud to go way out
into deep space and characterize
this ASTEROID.
There is so much more to do.
I want to be clear, there is
a lot left to do.
We have to bring the sample
home.
But at the same time this in
itself, the touch down, the
sample collection, was an
Aamazing achievement and I want
to congratulate the team.
With that I'll turn it back
over.
>> Thank you, sir.
Thank you, administrator.
Yesterday our team did an
amazing thing.
A true first for NASA.
The mission has been going since
2011 and OSIRIS-REx
successfully touched the surface
to collect a sample.
Everything went like it should
and like we hoped yesterday.
The technology performed
flawlessly and commands our team
sent, the signal from the earth
to OSIRIS-REx in 18-plus
minutes and it had to be
pre-loaded and ready on its own.
I remember thinking if only the
speed of light was a lot faster.
It isn't, of course.
The spacecraft slowly approached
the surface and getting more
detail.
It's a risk going down,
decreasing as we got more and
more information and approaching
that target with an accuracy
unprecedented.
We'll hear about this.
The swirl of material.
Unlike anything it had seen in
quite a while.
Evaluating the surrounding the
spacecraft backs away.
The team has a lot to work on
and analyze and is likely to be
a sample.
It appears the spacecraft is
safe and I look forward to
hearing the details HERE.
This is all the beginning the
process.
We are nowhere near the end.
I thought of the analogy of
fishing.
The line tied and sinker dropped
and now we have to bring it in
after we caught the fish and
bring it home.
It was an honor and joy to be
with the mission control team
yesterday and the leadership
team at LOCKHEED and determined
the spacecraft has done what it
was designed for what touched
the surface and powered the
collection mechanism and is on
its safe way back from
a hasarrous environment T-PLT is
a great feeling being with
people, one of thousands of over
many years to achieve.
From my e-mails and text streams
and social media scientists
within the United States and
Around the world are ecstatic.
The DISCOVERIES we will make
about our SOLAR system and
planets from the material around
at the type of its formation
will be immense.
The questions we have could see
life on earth as another
tantalizing avenue we want to
pursue and more.
Many generations will have the
chance to pursue these questions
and others from the pristine
samples coming back to earth and
countless discoveries and
researches will happen as
a result of that.
I want to commend you and the
entire team at the university of
Arizona, the teama NASA goddard
and rich burns and others at
LOCKHEED martin.
I want to give a shout out began
again to our partners the
canadian and Japanese space
partners and I look forward to
hear about the details of how we
pulled off this incredible
mission and what is next,
importantly.
I look forward to him releasing
what will be an ICONic image of
the power and excitement of
exploration, one that inspires
all of us.
Back to you.
>> Thank you.
We will now turn it over to the
principal INVESTIGATOR of the
OSIRIS-REx mission.
>> Thank you, Nancy.
Thank you for your words of
support and encouragement.
It was great to have the doctor
and other representatives from
HEADQUARTERS encouraging and
supporting the team and we
appreciated administrator bride
tine's CONGRATULATIONS to the
team and it uplifted us ask we
appreciated you joining.
It is about monitoring as we
watch the events unfold
200 million miles away.
The question that came up over
and over again is when will we
get the images back?
I can tell you a lot of us were
up really late last night.
We were watching the images come
down one by one by about 2:00
a.m. here local time in Denver
we got what was, what I call the
money shot where we saw it
CONtacting the surface and the
effect of injecting that high
purity gas.
Let's just go and take a quick
look at the data.
I am going to show you a series
of images.
This is about twice the frame
rate and coming in faster here.
I will just let that play out
and let you appreciate it one
more time as we go through and
we have analysis we can perform
about what happened here.
Maybe one more time.
It's just soy cool.
so cool.
I must have watched it about 100
times last night before I got
a little shut eye.
I dreamed of a wonder world of
particles floating all around
me.
Just to remind you what we are
LOOKING at here.
This is a full-scale model THIS.
Is on the end of the long
robotic arm 30-centimeters or
a foot in diameter.
This is what we placed on the
surface of the ASTEROID.
It's at the end of the robotic
arm and the high purity nitrogen
gas feeds in through a couple
tubes and comes out and pushes
everything up into the
collection chamber.
Let's take another look at just
a couple key images right before
CONtact and right after CONtact,
before the gas is fired.
There is a little over one
second time difference between
these two images.
There is an enormous wealth of
information?
>>> The first thing YOU CAN SEE
if you look at the area right
above the 12:00 position we are
making CONtact with a relatively
large rock a little OVER
20-centimeters we considered
a POTENTIAL obstruction but we
crushed.
IT when the spacecraft made
CONtact the rock appears to frag
THE and shatter that is great
news because it is being created
just by the motion of the
spacecraft pushing into the
surface.
If you look at other area around
at 10:30 to the upper left, YOU
CAN SEE motion.
It looks like we are pushing and
EXERTing a force throughout the
soil on the ASTEROID surface.
Good news for our POTENTIAL for
successful sample collection.
I want to point out another feet
that you are didn't get a lot of
attention yesterday.
We talks body the gas
stimulation and driving into
this bulk filter.
As you can see there is a whole
series of circular disks on the
flight hardware what is mounted
in here are CONtact pads
literally made out of stains
steel velcro to pick up material
in the order of a millimeter
size or smaller.
When the head is making CONtact
with the surface and crushing
what appears to be a very soft,
appliable material is good news
not only for the bulk sample
collection because when the head
penetrates and we are estimating
about 2-centimeters of
penetration at least during this
event, a lot of material is
forced into the sample
collector.
By crushing you will drive a lot
of material into the CONtact
pads.
From analysis of the images we
have so far is the sampling
ehaven't went really well and I
think the chances that there is
material in the head have gone
way up based on the analysis of
the images.
One more sequence now after the
event when the gas bottle is
fired.
You can see particle, flying all
over the place.
We really did kind of make
a mess on the surface of the
ASTEROID but it's a good mess.
It's the kind of mess we were
hoping for.
We have additional CONfidence we
pushed material up into the
sampler head.
Just a little bit of the time
line here, we make CONtact about
one SECOND went by, the gas
bottle fire, the gas was blown
down for about five seconds,
WHICH is as much time as we were
hoping to get to collect the
material.
The system seems to have
performed nominally.
The surface behaved very well.
And everything that we can see
from the initial images
indicates sampling success: We
have work to do and will go
through the entire procedure
and.
I am pretty excited about all of
this.
This is great news.
And I will turn it over to rich
to talk about the spacecraft
performance from here.
>> Thank you very much.
We are happy to be sharing this
information WITH YOU. I will try
to set CONtext for the movie
dante showed you in the last
stages AND/ORienting you with
what nightingale looked like.
Let's start with the animation.
This is the final descent stages
and the same image, this is an
animation, of course.
We'll transfer to a perspective
near the surface so you can see
how rugged the terrain is here.
At CONtact you will see the
sample collection head made
CONtact with the surface.
And the nitrogen bottle is fired
and more is disturbed.
The cut away of the sample
collection head shows the air
flow of the nitrogen and the
back away maneuver from the
surface.
That completes; that maneuver
completed, the sequence we are
safely away from the surface
now.
I will turn to the orien TAEUGSZ
of the sample collection site
nightingale.
We'll show a graphic to describe
that.
On the upper right is an image
from the reconnaissance c.
The resolution is 4-millimeters
per pixel.
The YELLOW circle in that image
is the dimension of the sample
collection head, the sense of
the rocks and material under the
collection head at the time of
CONtact.
The bottom right is the snapshot
of the sample head before
CONtact.
On the left hand side of the
graphic citizen nightingale --
graphic is the nightingale site
and it is the estimated point of
CONtact which is less than
a meter away from the center of
the site.
I will emphasize that because we
are over 320 million-kilometers
away from earth at this pointer.
We touch this ASTEROID within
a meter of where we intended to.
That's EXTRAORDINARY AND a real
credit to our team, navigators,
the folks here at LOCKHEED and
the science team who all had to
come together to enable that to
happen to allow the navigation
system to work as administrator
bridenstine said, out performing
our requirements.
Our initial requirements were to
land within 25 meters of
a specified site.
We landed within a meter.
Incredible there.
And also the rugged terrain you
saw from the perspective near
the surface of the site want
EXTROERDinary rugged terrain.
The satchel site nightingale is
actually one of the smoother
area, but quite small comparED
TO the 25-meter requirement.
We'll talk a little about where
the spacecraft is presently.
We'll start with AN ANmation
with a back away maneuver, the
thrusters firing.
You see the spacecraft going
away quickly and out of orbit.
This graphic shows the orbit we
left from and then a hyperbolic
trajectory safely drifting away.
We will arrest that, drift away
on Friday at about 80-kilometers
distance.
All the mess that dante
described that we made we are
safely away from that debris
field at the present moment.
I will turn it over to sandy
friend from LOCKHEED.
>> Thank you, rich.
I will talk about the spacecraft
performance yesterday and what
is coming up.
So the spacecraft performance is
performance is phenomenal.
Feature tracking, matching all
the features as it slowly
descended.
You heard and have seen we made
CONtact and fired the gas bottle
as planned and hope to have
a lot CAPTURed in there before
we backed away.
We started down linking our tag
data yesterday.
We were fortunate to maintain
COMMUNICATION throughout the
CONtact and our 40 bit
teleemetry.
We went to a higher data rate
and get data including the
phenomenal set of images dante
just showed.
All the sub systems are
reporting nominal performance.
We did see a number of
additional bright objectses in
our star tracker.
Not unexpected coming off what
we saw the surface and it has
cleared.
We have a series of spacecraft
activities coming up that will
inform us how much sample we
have collected and give us
insight into the spacecraft sub
systems.
The 50 event is tomorrow.
-- first event is tomorrow.
We have AN ANmation event of
what it looks like.
We are able to arcticulate the
arm and head over the Sam cam
that will take a series of
images.
We are hoping to see lots of
sample entrained in the sampler
head.
We will be able to see everyday
of sample on the CONtact padS.
Any dust that may be on the arm
or the sampler head.
That will be the first activity
to help us determine just how
much sample we have collected.
Then our second activity is the
sample mass measurement.
We have a second animation
showing that.
We'll extend the arm and spin
the spacecraft.
Now we have done this activity
before.
We have a pre-tag, this will be
our post tag.
That wye -- way we can determine
the inertiaia.
We will check out redundant
components.
We will turn it back over to
Nancy.
>> Thank you.
We are ready to take questions
from the media by phone.
Operator please patch THROUGH
our first question.
The first question comes from
ASSOCIATed press.
Your line is open.
>> CONGRATULATIONS.
I heard Mr. Bridenstine say it
is 15 seconds that is longer
than anticipated.
I guess that's a good thing,
right had when do you think
might be the soonest that we can
declare success and have at
least a pretty good hunch that
we have what you were going
after?
Thank you.
>> Great question.
I will tell you the 15 seconds I
got in open media reports, so
I'll let the experts tell us
exactly what they know.
Dante if you would like to take
that.
>> I will let sandy take that
and she is the expert.
>> The preliminary analysis
shows we were in CONtact with
the surface for about six
seconds.
Our COLLECTION time about five
seconds it takes just about
a second after we make CONtact
before the gas bottle is fired
at one second difference.
>> I read an article it said 15.
I guess I was wrong.
I apologize.
>> That's quite all right.
When do you think the soonest
might be that you will have if
not an exact measurement,
a pretty good idea that you can,
the pressure might be down?
>> We -- go Ahead.
>> I was GOING TO say I'll
defer.
>> We are continuing to analyze
all the ENGINEERing data to
better core late the data sets
together and get a better time
line of everything that happened
and how fast the BOTTLE pressure
went down and everything is
being looked at closely here as
we look to analyze the sample we
have collected and hoping to
have good solid time lines in
the next few dayS.
>> I continuing is planned for
Saturday.
-- I think it is planned for
Saturday.
The team needs time to analyze
that.
When do we expect the final
report on that VALUE?
>> We are expecting a final
sample report on Monday.
>> Thank you.
>> Operator, ready for the next
question.
>> Thank you.
The line is open.
>> Hello.
Thank you so much for the update
here and CONGRATULATIONS it
appears so far on the sampling.
My question is for dante.
I am just curious it's been
a long road reaching with
OSIRIS-REx and a very
unexpected circumstances to try
to collect samples of the
ASTEROID last night.
I'm wondering kind of what you
and the team are feeling or were
feeling when you saw the images
come down after, you know,
making lots of precautions for
the ON-GOING pandemic and every
other challenge we are facing
right now.
I am just curious what that is
like when you saw the imageS.
>> That's a great question.
We stayed here fairly late last
night.
I stuck around to get to the
point where we made the high
gain antenna CONtact and got the
initial teleem tree back down
and had a status meeting at 9:00
local Denver time.
I got to my apartment in Denver
around 11:00 last night and I
couldn't sleep, as you can
imagine, I knew we were anding
the image around 2:00 a.m.
I got on to the chat.
We have a chat feature with our
science team and the images are
processed through the center in
tucson, Arizona.
Our imaging scientists were busy
downloads and analyzing the
images and the science team was
analyzing them in real time
through the chat feet and you
are locking at various aspects
in timing and sequence.
The chat was filled with emojis
and wows and all kinds of
celebratory remarkses.
Science NEVER sleeps in these
CONditions.
We started assessing how far the
head penetrated into the
surface.
The mood overall was SKWRAOUB
HRAPT because everything look --
was jubilant and can say the
best piece of information was
the head looks like it pushed
down into the surface with all
the testing the team did to test
head performance some of the
best results are when they get
under the surface just a bit and
is able to fire the nitrogen
gases.
I know we will hear at another
event from our scientists and
you can look forward to that.
I know he is literally over the
ASTEROID at this point with
excitement about how his device
has performed and that SPREAD
throughout the entire science
team.
I look forward TO BE able to
sleep tonight knowing we had
a job really well done.
>> Operator, your next question.
>> Thank you.
Steven Clark.
Your line is open.
>> CONGRATULATIONS on the
success.
My question is for dante.
Are you at any point in the next
few days or weeks expecting to
get an image of the satchel you
collected -- sample you
collected in and if you have any
estimate on the mass estimate
this weekend, thank you.
>> Thank you, Steven.
Absolutely.
I think the next major plight
activity for the spacecraft is
using the Sam cam to image the
head.
Sandy showed an animation of
what that sequence looks like am
we'll be able to look at the
baseplate and CONtact pads.
Based on what I have seen so far
with the ASTEROID surface
crushing under the Sam head I
expect to see it coasted in
black regolithe.
We hope to be able to see inside
the Sam head.
It may be so full no light is
able to penetrate.
I will take that as a win.
But it does require just the
right lighting CONditions for us
to see inside the tag Sam head
and we don't require that to
take place.
The images will be acquired
tomorrow.
Down linked over the next day or
so and obviously we'll be
analyzing those intently.
Remind me of the second part of
your question.
>> Just how precise is this
moment ofi neRTia.
>> The mission requirement is to
bring back 60 grams of
regolithe.
We have done a lot of work with
this team to determine what the
precision on that measurement
is.
We rehearsed it during the
checkpoint and math point
rehearsal.
We are carrying a three sigma
uncertaintiy of about 20 grams
on that measurement.
We have worked through this with
our stake holders at NASA
HEADQUARTERs and 80 grams is the
magic number.
If we see 80 grams or higher we
have a 90% CONfidence of having
collected 60 grams of rego
lithe.
It's a key number I am LOOKING
for.
Below that we have
a conversation with the team to
decide what we think the best
path forward is.
20-gram, three sigma is the
number we have agreed to with
the agency.
>> Thank you.
Operator, next question?
>> Craig Smith.
Your line is open.
>> Thank you.
Question for dante.
How is the -- how is it decided
which organizations get which
share of the collected material?
What share do you expect to
Arizona get?
Please give us an idea of the
researchers who are lined up to
get a look at that material.
>> Thank you.
Great to hear from you.
The sample belongs to NASA and
really to the American
taxpayers.
So the only transfer of sample
authorized is the 4% GOES TO the
canadian Space Agency by mass.
And half a percent GOES TO the
Japanese Space Agency to
reciprocate for their
contributions to the success of
the mission.
The science team I lead will be
allocated 25% of the return mass
and also 25% of the CONtact pads
for our SCIENTIFIC analysis.
It still BELONGs to the agency
and under the control of NASA.
It's allocateED TO me and the
science team through a loan
agreement.
All that aside, we are basically
planning right now on analyzing
25% of the return mass.
And a lot of my activity lately
has been writing my sample
analysis plan.
This has been really exciting to
get to the stage of the program
where we can lay out in detail
the different analysts that will
be LOOKING at the material.
The university of Arizona will
be a central organization in the
analysis of the return material.
We have new LABORATORY WAOES
have installed, a new instrument
being developed right now that
we are LOOKING forward to
analyzing the material with.
It spans the globe.
We have key organizationses in
the United States like goddard,
johnson space center that will
play central roles and team
members in Canada, Japan and
AUSTRALIA, throughout Europe
that are going to be involved in
the program as well.
And we'll be able to talk about
that and roll that plan out over
the next year or so as we
finalize the details on that.
I can tell you based on what I
have seen today, we are looking
at hopefully a lot of material
and a lot of great science
coming out of the sample phase
of OSIRIS-REx.
>> Great.
>> Thank you, CONGRATULATIONS.
>> Operator?
Next question.
>> Leo enright of IRISH TV your
line open.
>> Thank you very much for DOING
THIS and CONGRATULATIONS.
A couple of questions.
One for rich burns.
You mentioned the possibility of
maybe less of a sample than you
had hoped.
I realize this is unlikely, but
if you found you had less of
a sample than you expected, is
there a plan b?
Can you go back or is that it?
And also for the doctor, can you
talk about the rocks we saw.
You mentioned the rocks seemed
to fragment very easily.
What can you say about the
nature of these rocks?
If I picked one up would I be
able to crumble it in my
fingers?
>> Thank you very much for that
question.
It's a great one.
If we for some reason decided
not to stow this sample and
determine the mass was not
sufficient we wanted to go back
we can in fact go back.
We have three nitrogen bottles
that allows us to touch the
surface three times.
We have disturbed as you saw in
the animation, not the
animation, but the images dante
showed, we have disturbed the
surface of nightingale in
a radical way.
We WON'T be going back to
nightingale at least for our
second attempt.
We would go to our back up site
called OSPREY and we are ready
to do that in the mid-January
time frame.
I will turn it over terror dante
for the second part.
>> THE rocks on the ASTEROID
surface have turned out to be
fascinating scientifically and
the team has done an amazing job
of processing the remote data.
I can answer the question that
first of all, the surface seems
to be dodge nated by two --
dominated by two distinct rock
types a rock that we crushed
under and from recent analysis
using the thermal data how the
rock heats up and cools off we
inferred the rocks might be very
weak compared to what we are
used to dealing with here on
earth.
Most exciting for me as a sample
SCIENTIST, very weak comparED TO
the meterrites in our
collections -- meteoriteses here
on earth.
Our meteorITISs are a BIASed
sample the most sturdy and
strong material that passes
through the earth's ATMOSPHERE.
It looks the like the material
that dominates the surface might
be much more fragile and
appliable.
I can tell you the science team
is excited about the possibility
of getting a direct strength
measurement through detailed
analysis of this detailed image
analysises before and after
CONtact.
The SECOND kind of rock is
brighter.
It tends to be shot through with
bright white veins or
inclusions.
This is a mineral people are
familiar with that forms a kind
of white crud around your
faucets and sinks if you live in
an area with hard water.
The rocks seem to be stronger.
Probably because of the material
that has cemented them together.
We do see maybe hint there is
were some of the brighter
material, smaller fragments
under the tag Samhead and the
team is going in for analysis to
see if that the case.
Mineralogically they are
dominated by HYDRATed mineral,
clays that have water contained
in their crystal structure.
That's very exciting
scientifically.
We have seen an iron oxid called
magnetight and Abundand hydrogen
bonded material which is what
this mission is about bringing
home carbonATE material we
talked about earlier.
>> Next question?
>> CONGRATULATIONS.
Super exciting.
I know that we are pleased and
over the ASTEROID for all you
guys.
I wonder from images you have
currently.
In Monday's press conferences
there was a lot of conversation
about diversity in regards to
the size of the sample pieces
and the material and everything.
Is there any clues from the
images that you have currently
we have a good diversity of
small pieces and pieces closer
TO THE 2-centimeter mark and
different type of material as
well?
That's for TKAPBTS dante or
anyone who can answer.
>> I CAN say just within the
past hour or so I got the
analysis from my image PROCESSES
team where the EXACT location
the Samhead made CONtact.
They are busy analyzing THAT.
It does appear that we made
CONtact with an area that had
already been mapped out and
verified to contain abundant
samplable material.
The imaging resolution during
the reCONc characterization of
nightingale we got down to the
4-millimeter per pixel scale.
This REGION does look really
sampleABLE.
Lots of small particles and the
fact the material just crushed
under will add more smaller
particles to collect.
I don't want to answer the
question just yet about the
diversity of the rock types yet
because the team is still
processing that up to the
beginning of the media briefing.
>> Operator, next question.
>> Thank you.
The line is open.
>> Thank you.
I wonder if you could explain
more about how you will measure
how much sample you have
collected besides the
possibility of images.
>> Yes, so we have's sample mass
measurement activity.
We have been practicing this as
mentioned around our checkpoint
and match point activities where
we can measure the moment of
inertia and doing that before
tag and that same activity after
tag we can take the
measurements.
We did perform our sample mass
measurement activity about 10
days ago and will do the post
tag this Saturday and be able to
take the two measurements and
look at the difference of them
to get the measurement to see
how much mass is in the tag
Samhead.
>> Operator, next question.
>> Thank you.
The line is open.
>> Thank you, everyone for
taking my call.
CONGRATULATIONS to the entire
team.
What are the reasons for waiting
to January for a SECOND attempt
and if a third is needed have
you determined what place, what
site?
>> Great question.
The reason we would do a second
attempt at OSPREY in January we
ever backing away from the
ASTEROID right now and I
mentioned we would be about
80-kilometers when we make
a maneuver to arrest that drift
away on Friday.
That will put us on a trajectory
that goes to an away point where
we can re-enter orbit.
You see the orbit just shown is
a tenuous trick to get into.
It was 500 meters in diameter
and the gravity field is weak.
Just GETTING INTO orbit takes
weeks of maneuvers to get there
and we depart for the next
sample collection attempt at the
right latitude.
All of that take business weeks
of planning and -- takes weeks
of preparation and planning and
to tag at a different site that
involves and that runs out to
January.
The third sample attempt would
be, to be determined date most
likely in march when we would
attempt a third attempt.
It largely DEPENDs on what
happens at OSPREY.
If we were to go to OSpee in
January and wave -- OSPREY and
wave off abort and not touch the
surface and not disturb OSPREY
as the dramatic DISTURBANCE of
nightingale we go back to
OSPREY.
If we did disturb OSPREY we
would have to perform more
reconnaissance over one of the
two, nightsing gale ors on PRAOE
or follow -- OSPREY or follow
some other path.
We use optical navigation.
Much as you are driving to
a location and know where you
are where a gas station is or
super market, the spacecraft
knows where it is by features on
the surface.
Groups of rocks that cast
shadows or clusters of rocks
that have distinctive features
are recognized in the imagery as
it deSENDs and knows where to go
and knows to take the right turn
at the super market.
Wonts we disturb the features
that means we are going to need
to take more images and build
a new set of feature cat lag
logs to teach the spacecraft
where the grocery store is.
>> Thank you.
Operator, next question please.
>> Your line is open.
>> CONGRATULATIONS to everybody
involved in the mission.
What was one of the biggest
DISCOVERIES that you made in
making CONtact with the ASTEROID
that you didn't expect?
And my second question is what
is the future applicability with
projects utilized on the
spacecraft.
>> I will take the discovery
question.
>> We had the data down for just
a little over 13 hours and the
DISCOVERIES are still to come.
What I was LOOKING at this
morning at 2:00 Denver time
after a very exciting event how
does it look in terms ever
getting a sample.
It is something we'll think of
down the road.
I can tell you that I was
hopeful that the surface was
going to be soft and crushable.
That was CONfirmed by our
CONtact with the tag Samhead
analysis and images.
That is really good news.
I am pretty focused on sampling
success right now.
I will tell you the science team
is busy in a couple of different
areas.
They are working through
a detailed analysis with
additional data navigation
guidance and control team that
happened when the spacecraft was
in CONtact for six seconds.
It will tell us about the
perPOERPLance and a follow on
science we'll be able to do with
the information.
The big discovery is it looked
really samplable and the tag
Sam -- Samhead pushed into the
surface.
We have the activities sandy
walked us through to verify all
that.
The trend right now is that we
have sample and we were
successful here based on
analysis of the image.
>> I would love to speak to the
second part of that question.
The question was what
technologies on board the
spacecraft can enable future
missions and I think one of the
most amazing technology system
the optical navigation system.
I TALKED ABOUT what we called
natural feature tracking.
It has an amazing sore story.
It was designed to use a light
arm to measure the altitude to
the surface as its primary
sensor to do the navigation of
the surface.
Natural future tracking was
added around the design review
time period to have a back up
solution.
As I mentioned, what it does is
recognize features on the
surface of the ASTEROID and
update its own sense of its
position.
It knows where to go in the
future.
Now this technology being added
late in the game was done by our
colleagues at LOCKHEED martin
and was an amazing ENGINEERing
accomplishment and one of the
most amazing performances of the
system yesterday was just how
well that system performed
relative to our simulations of
it.
Optical navigation systems are
notorius for not per forming as
expected and this performed
exactly as expected and allowed
us to hit the target within
a meter.
Our colleagues at lock hood
martin deserve a lot of "there
are that.
How that -- a lot of credit for
that.
How it will apply in the future
will ALLOW forautonomous
navigation around hazardous or
non-hazardous environments.
>> I would like to point out
future tracking I can see useful
in the FUTURE AND tag Sam is new
technology flying Aboard the
spacecraft and you can see that
going forward for sample
missions and return missions.
>> One more quick question for
the NASA representative.
Is this the first time working
with the university of Arizona?
What does this say about the
school and future projects with
the school?
>> This is not the first time.
To be meccas of planetary
science and investigator of
multiple missions and continues
to compete very well in many
different areas.
And planetary science.
The yesterday of SAEURGZ one of
the top LEADERS in the whole
country.
>> What did you say about
Arizona state university as
well?
>> Arizona state university
frankly is lined up the top
universities of planetary and
rank in the top part of such
a ranking.
Arizona state also at this
moment in time for example has
a principal investigator,
instruments being built for
other missions and Arizona state
is a RELcritical partner for
NASA -- a really critical
partner for NASA.
>> Thank you very much for your
time.
>> Thank you.
Operator, next question.
>> Your line is open.
>> CONGRATULATIONS to everyone.
A couple of questions on the
series of images released and
the RUBBLE cloud this picked up.
Did your agency glean anything
about the surface material from
the dynamics of that cloud and
the particles?
And what kind of safeguards or
system checks are in place to
make sure the craft wasn't
damaged?
Finally I am just curious the
time between the images.
The train rate of the video.
>> I will answer the imaging
questions and hand it over to
safety.
The images are 1.25 SECONDs
apart.
The first version I showed the
larger sequence was sped up by
quite a bit relative to the
frame rate n. terms of the
debris clouds, absolutely Tis
impressive the fragments we see
flying around.
There are large particles.
One thing the science team has
start sidetracking the
trajectory of the particles as
we see them mobilizing.
We are slowing them down and
identifying individual
particles.
There are other images too that
we collected with a different
camera called the nAv-cam for
the natural feature tracking.
I was getting a quick look at
those before the media
conference fresh off the
spacecraft and we are processing
those and analyzing those and
they will be released later this
week.
It gives a wider field of view
as well and we are getING THIS
great point of view of the
Samcam and the nAv-cam.
It will be a nice image pair.
I think the final thing to point
out is the initial ejection of
particles comes from the tag Sam
gas as blown down through the
sample collector head.
We were only in CONtact with
that ASTEROID for six seconds
after that point.
The back away thrusters fired
and kicked up a SECOND set of
cloud and debris.
We are still disentangling, what
was LIBERATed by tag Sam and the
thrusters and the nAv-cam images
are pretty fresh.
We got a 86 look at those.
-- quick look at those.
They are impressive but we are
not ready to release those.
We HAVEN'T had a chance to
process themselves ourselves
quite yet.
I will hand it over to sandy.
>> The spacecraft was designed
for this.
We knew when we made CONtact we
were going to stir up a lot of
regolithe and a make sure we
would keep the spacecraft sieve.
By monitoring this spacecraft
over the last close to 24 hours
now we have been able to see
a number of components and are
trending as subsystems do
throughout making sure things
are going as planned.
They are not seeing any changes
in their measurements.
Now next week early NEXT week,
Monday we'll be doing
a spacecraft check out where we
get a chance to take star camera
images on the primary tracker
and redundant tracker and other
ENGINEERing activities to better
inform us if we have had
degradation on the vehicle.
>> Next question.
>> Your line is open.
>> Thank you for taking my
question.
I was wonder figure you knew if
any -- wondering if you knew of
anything that was tossed up in
space would end up the earth and
maybe you just created a new
METEOR shower.
>> I will answer that one.
I think you read my mind.
I have been thinking about that.
We have thought about that as I
mentioned yesterday and talked
about for quite a while on the
mission.
It is already kicking particles
off the surface.
One of the things we are doing
is monitoring for a meteor
shower that would occur in the
southern hemisphere in the third
week of September when the orbit
crosses that of the earth's
orbit.
We had data we just RECENTLY
received from the meteor
campaign and processing that to
see if maybe there say small
signal of natural meteors THAT.
Study is something we are
already pursuing.
I will go back to that team that
is responsible for that
investigation with your exact
question.
I haven't had a chance to ask
them that.
I didn't dare to hope we would
KICK UP as much as we are seeing
here.
I am not sure.
But it's a question I have asked
myself and we have team members
knowing about that based on the
natural part California ejection
events -- particle ejection
events.
We just need time to push
through this exciting
operational phase of the program
and start to think about the
long-TERM science employ
indications.
-- implications.
We have -- tag was a great
science experiment and a lot of
work coming out television and
we need time to get it
calibrated, processed and spend
time thinking about it without
all the critical operational
decisions in front of us like we
have over the next couple of
weeks.
>> Next question, operator.
>> Your line is open.
>> Thank you for taking another
question.
Dante, the material we see in
the imagery that was disturbed
and kicked up any estimate on
how big some of the particles
might be?
They looks kind of small, but
it's hard to tell from scale.
And also if you did collect the
required sample of 60-plus grams
what is the flight plan for
OSIRIS-REx over the next few
months?
Do you have a date for
DEPARTURE?
Thank you.
>> Great question.
Can we bring up the third cest
images LOOKING at debris and
slow it down.
I know we talked about that.
Remember for scale we are
LOOKING at the tag Samhead
30-centimeters in diameter.
You can get a sense.
The spacecraft is only 6 feet
away not much Parter than my
span here.
CAN YOU estimate the particles.
We are looking at things that
are probably on the are order of
centimeters to several
centimeters.
We have this guy here.
This is pretty amazing LOOKING
particle.
If it was to scale of the tag
Samhead it would be on the order
of 15-centimeters it is closer
in our field of view and will be
small are than that.
This is the biggest I have seen
so far in my assessment of the
data.
The team is going THROUGH with
much more careful analysis.
I guess this is up to
10-centimeters across.
This guy comes shooting off from
the right side of the field of
view and moves over off the
image to the left.
There is certainly a lot of work
to do to really get a sense of
how far away, what is the DEPTH
of field of view of the image we
are seeing here and do real
precise measurements.
This alone shows me we picked up
things that are pretty big but
for the most part we are looking
AT centimeter, sub-centimeters
THERE.
Is a lot more detailed analysis
to go this is prelimmary and the
team is busy answering that
exact CAN WE.
>> To rich for the DEPARTURE
date and the return crews.
>> If we stow the sample we'll
be doing so in the first week of
November and we'll follow to
continue to drift away from the
ASTEROID after we makes the
maneuver on Friday rather than
attempting to reinsert into
orbit.
Our departure window opens in
march.
That's when the orbit willa
mechanics say it's fuel
EFFICIENT to get back to earth
and our designated date in
December 2023.
We will depart early march in
the opening of the window.
>> Okay.
We have time for one final
question.
Operator, please patch it
through.
Operator, do we have another
Your line is now open.
>> Thank you so much.
CONGRATULATIONS to the team.
I have a question about the
aftermath of this tag.
What are the plans, if any, to
do remote sensing on nightingale
site and see the hole you all
left?
And more generally the team
itself, this moment has CAPTURed
the world's attention.
Anything you want to say to
people around the world who are
watching and taking this in
Along with you?
>> Sure.
I'll answer that.
It's a tough question.
There was a lot of into from the
science team on more data.
More characterization after the
satchelling attempt -- sample
being attempt.
We gathered together as
a management team and evaluated
that question thoroughly.
And we agreed unanimously this
is about safe return of the
sample.
We do not want to do anything to
put that sample at risk.
The plan right now is we will go
through the verification
activities on the flight system,
check out the state of the
vehicle.
If everything looks positive and
we meet with Thomas on
October 30 and make the decision
to stow that is the end of the
science campaign.
We are solely focused on the
return crews and quite honestly
the real SCIENTIFIC PAY OFF is
the sample return and the sample
science and we'll be putting OUR
focus and resources into that.
It wasn't an easy decision.
I guarantee you, it was tough.
Especially the SCIENTIST in me
asks the questions but it's the
right decision to maintain the
focus on the level and
requirement.
I can tell you right before we
kicked off the tag activity I
went through all our
publications and all our data
and I mapped them to the level
requirements of the MISSIONs
what I agreed to with Thomas and
lori this program would deliver
and we have met and in most
cases vastly exceeded the
science requiremented of the
remote sensing.
All we have to do is get that
sample back to the earth, get it
in the LABORATORies and answer
the fundamental questions of the
formation of our SOLAR systems
and why earth is a HABITABLE
world.
You give me a chance to promote
a message and I will just say
OSIRIS-REx, in my opinion, is
the culmination of human
activity as a species.
We built it for peaceful
purposes out of curiosity and
our desire for knowledge.
It's a team that comes from
a variety of backgrounds and
view points.
But none of that matters because
we worked together, united in
a common vision and common goal
and when we do that we achieve
amazing things.
And so I told the team, you
know, I know we focus so much on
the details and TECHNICAL
implementation of the prospect,
but we serve as a model for what
we can do as human beings when
we unite in a common vision.
When we are united we are
strong, when we are divided we
are weak.
I hope the message of unity and
common purpose and that we are
all in this together, right.
We have this precious planet
earth we are stewards of and
when we come together we achieve
amazing things.
>> Can I follow on to that?
Yeah.
One additional thing to add on
to that, beautifully put words
from dante.
We are hoping to serve for an
inspiration for future
SCIENTISTs and ENGINEERs.
This mission is as much fun as
you can have and get paid to do,
right?
I had our, know one of of our
instrument scientists was
examining images as it came down
this morning and said his
subject line in his e-mail was
this is so cool!
Right?
And it is.
When he finished with was I love
this job.
We are hoping there are 5, 6,
10-year-olds out there who get
INSPIRED.
The amazing achievements of the
mission and the people and
ENGINEERs and scientists on the
mission that made it happen.
We need our future generations
to be INSPIRED by this.
That's what we are hoping to do.
I think the other thing is the
sample allocation.
A large fraction will be
reserved for study of future
generations.
We hope future sample SCIENTIST,
INSPIRED by THIS.
Kids at home today could be the
ones studying this sample in 10,
20, 30 years and makes new
discoveries that aren't even
possible with today's
technology.
Thank you.
>> That was a great way to wrap
the show up.
And the images are cool as your
ENGINEER said.
We would like to invite everyone
to tune in to the NASA science
live that will follow this press
briefing at 6:15.
Go to over NASA.gov/OSIRIS-REx
and see a presentation from
various SCIENTISTs and they will
talk about the images and the
over all mission.
I WANT to say CONGRATULATIONS to
the team.
Go OSIRIS-REx.
And thank you for tuning in.