1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
Reporter: NASA has a very exciting mission that is getting ready to launch

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000
OSIRIS-REx is going be traveling to an asteroid called Bennu.

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000
Taking a sample and returing that sample is the first time NASA has returned

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000
such a sample from an asteroid and here to tell us more about this mission

5
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000
is Dr. Jim Garvin at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  Thanks for joining us.

6
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,000
Garvin:  Thanks for having me.

7
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000
Reporter:  So later today NASA will launch it's first ever

8
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,000
sample return mission to an asteroid.

9
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000
Tell us more about this mission.

10
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000
Garvin:  So OSIRIS-REx is a mission to explore

11
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000
the time capsule of the solar system

12
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000
and the kinds of objects that we think may have

13
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000
catalyzed the chemistry that lead to life or other

14
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,000
very exciting prospects on the inner planets or beyond. 

15
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,000
and so by going to the right place

16
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000
with an advance robotic mission,

17
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,000
launching from Cape Canavereal, we can explore

18
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,000
that part of the history of our own planet and other planets

19
00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,000
that's long gone and missing.

20
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,000
Bennu is a very special asteroid, only 1600 feet across,

21
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000
an island in the sky, that we can go up 

22
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,000
close to with this robotic spacecraft, sample it

23
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000
and return those samples to Earth as a scientific

24
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,000
legacy for generations.  

25
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,000
Kind of like the dead sea scrolls.

26
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000
Only in this case for the science of our solar system.

27
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,010
Reporter:  Now could asteroids contain the chemical

28
00:01:20,010 --> 00:01:24,010
precursors for life here on Earth and maybe else in the solar system?

29
00:01:24,010 --> 00:01:27,010
Garvin:  We believe that there is very good prospect 

30
00:01:27,010 --> 00:01:30,010
that asteroids such as Bennu, that class of small

31
00:01:30,010 --> 00:01:33,010
objects, countably infinint in space

32
00:01:33,010 --> 00:01:36,010
contains the chemical building blocks of what could have started

33
00:01:36,010 --> 00:01:39,010
as life and this asteroid is only the size of a large skyscraper 

34
00:01:39,010 --> 00:01:42,010
and we believe these asteroids,

35
00:01:42,010 --> 00:01:45,010
ones like Bennu, collided with the early Earth, early Mars

36
00:01:45,010 --> 00:01:48,010
and seeded the planets with chemistrys 

37
00:01:48,010 --> 00:01:51,010
that allow for the development of complicated molecules.

38
00:01:51,010 --> 00:01:54,010
Some of which could have become

39
00:01:54,010 --> 00:01:56,010
the building blocks of life and by testing that idea

40
00:01:56,010 --> 00:01:58,010
with Bennu, we are exploring that

41
00:01:58,010 --> 00:02:00,010
unknown history of early Earth

42
00:02:00,010 --> 00:02:02,010
that's no longer preserved.

43
00:02:02,010 --> 00:02:04,010
Reporter:  Now NASA has a really

44
00:02:04,010 --> 00:02:06,010
interesting way to kiss the asteroid

45
00:02:06,010 --> 00:02:08,010
to collect a sample.

46
00:02:08,010 --> 00:02:10,010
Show us how you're going to do that.

47
00:02:10,010 --> 00:02:12,010
Garvin:  So we are going to get close to this asteroid 

48
00:02:12,010 --> 00:02:14,010
mapping it in detail at a scale

49
00:02:14,010 --> 00:02:16,010
finer then your own back yard

50
00:02:16,010 --> 00:02:18,010
and by doing that mapping first over

51
00:02:18,010 --> 00:02:20,010
a period of two years we'll find the right spot

52
00:02:20,010 --> 00:02:23,010
to back in and gently high five

53
00:02:23,010 --> 00:02:26,010
the asteroid and use a vacuum technique,

54
00:02:26,010 --> 00:02:29,010
even though we are in a vacuum,

55
00:02:29,010 --> 00:02:32,010
to collect 60 or 200 grams sort of the size of a baseball

56
00:02:32,010 --> 00:02:35,010
of material and place it into special

57
00:02:35,010 --> 00:02:38,010
sample return canister spacecraft that will then

58
00:02:38,010 --> 00:02:41,010
in 2021 be sent on a return path to Earth

59
00:02:41,010 --> 00:02:43,010
to land in the desert of Utah.

60
00:02:43,010 --> 00:02:45,010
This is engineering at its best.

61
00:02:45,010 --> 00:02:47,010
Reporter:  Now what will science

62
00:02:47,010 --> 00:02:50,010
do with a sample do with sample do with sample once it returns to Earth?

63
00:02:50,010 --> 00:02:53,010
Garvin:  Once those priceless samples come back to Earth

64
00:02:53,010 --> 00:02:56,010
they'll be specially characterized and sealed incased

65
00:02:56,010 --> 00:02:59,010
and administered and archived at the

66
00:02:59,010 --> 00:03:02,010
Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas.

67
00:03:02,010 --> 00:03:05,010
About a quarter of the samples will be the

68
00:03:05,010 --> 00:03:08,010
samples that will be studied by the science team on this mission.

69
00:03:08,010 --> 00:03:11,010
Lead by Donte Lauretta at the University of Arizona

70
00:03:11,010 --> 00:03:13,010
and across the world.

71
00:03:13,010 --> 00:03:15,010
The rest of the samples, some of which will be sent

72
00:03:15,010 --> 00:03:17,010
to the Canadian Space Agency

73
00:03:17,010 --> 00:03:19,010
as our partners on this mission and to Japan

74
00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:21,010
the rest will be open for competition

75
00:03:21,010 --> 00:03:23,010
amongst all the scientist of the planet

76
00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:25,010
in their laboratories.

77
00:03:25,010 --> 00:03:27,010
To pick apart the minute details of

78
00:03:27,010 --> 00:03:29,010
the history of our solar system from these

79
00:03:29,010 --> 00:03:31,010
priceless sample, the first in a 

80
00:03:31,010 --> 00:03:33,010
generation from surface of another world.

81
00:03:33,010 --> 00:03:37,010
Reporter:  Tell me why are you so personally

82
00:03:37,010 --> 00:03:39,010
so excited for this mission?

83
00:03:39,010 --> 00:03:41,010
Garvin:  Well this mission gets to our roots

84
00:03:41,010 --> 00:03:43,010
and I think when we think

85
00:03:43,010 --> 00:03:45,010
about the small objects in the solar system

86
00:03:45,010 --> 00:03:47,010
that collide with Earth

87
00:03:47,010 --> 00:03:49,010
and actually produced many of the things

88
00:03:49,010 --> 00:03:51,010
we think are relics of those collisions 

89
00:03:51,010 --> 00:03:53,010
today, including the building block collisions

90
00:03:53,010 --> 00:03:55,010
the building blocks of like

91
00:03:55,010 --> 00:03:57,010
possible the reservoirs of water

92
00:03:57,010 --> 00:03:59,010
and other volatiles 

93
00:03:59,010 --> 00:04:01,010
This mission gets to that story and really it does so

94
00:04:01,010 --> 00:04:03,010
with three missions in one;

95
00:04:03,010 --> 00:04:05,020
sample return, asteroid reconnaissance. 

96
00:04:05,020 --> 00:04:07,020
and asteroid dynamic explorer.

97
00:04:07,020 --> 00:04:10,020
All in one, for the price of a block buster movie.

98
00:04:10,020 --> 00:04:13,020
What could be better?

99
00:04:13,020 --> 00:04:16,020


100
00:04:16,020 --> 00:04:17,040