WEBVTT FILE

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