WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.870
What do you think would be the
craziest shape you could imagine

2
00:00:02.870 --> 00:00:04.538
the asteroid being?

3
00:00:04.538 --> 00:00:09.877
[logo music]

4
00:00:09.877 --> 00:00:13.046
Hello space fans, I’m Katrina
Jackson with the Office of

5
00:00:13.046 --> 00:00:16.316
Communications at NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center. Two years

6
00:00:16.316 --> 00:00:19.453
ago, in September 2016,
OSIRIS-REx launched...

7
00:00:19.453 --> 00:00:20.587
[rocket engine burn]
>>ANNOUNCER’S VOICE:

8
00:00:20.587 --> 00:00:24.291
And liftoff of OSIRIS-REx!
[cheering] Oh my gosh! Woo!

9
00:00:24.291 --> 00:00:26.660
...NASA’s first mission
to go collect a sample from an

10
00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:30.898
asteroid and return it to Earth.
Now it’s August of 2018, and

11
00:00:30.898 --> 00:00:33.934
OSIRIS-REx is finally
approaching its target, asteroid

12
00:00:33.934 --> 00:00:37.237
Bennu. So I found a couple
people who can explain what the

13
00:00:37.237 --> 00:00:40.574
spacecraft is doing during this
approach phase and why it’s so

14
00:00:40.574 --> 00:00:43.377
exciting to get to this point in
the mission. [music starts]

15
00:00:43.377 --> 00:00:47.080
What is the approach phase of
the OSIRIS-REx mission? The

16
00:00:47.080 --> 00:00:52.886
approach phase is when we reach
about two million kilometers

17
00:00:52.886 --> 00:00:56.957
from the asteroid Bennu. You
know we’ve been approaching

18
00:00:56.957 --> 00:00:59.726
Bennu ever since we launched,
but once we reach this period

19
00:00:59.726 --> 00:01:03.196
where we’re about two million
kilomters away, that’s when our

20
00:01:03.196 --> 00:01:06.900
cameras can start to pick up
Bennu and see it as a single

21
00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:10.604
pixel in the image. So what will
you be doing throughout this

22
00:01:10.604 --> 00:01:12.940
approach phase? Sure, so I’m
part of the flight dynamics

23
00:01:12.940 --> 00:01:15.342
team, and that basically means
that I work with a team of

24
00:01:15.342 --> 00:01:18.278
highly skilled engineers, from
Kinetix Aerospace and Goddard

25
00:01:18.278 --> 00:01:21.014
Space Flight Center, and we’re
responsible for navigating the

26
00:01:21.014 --> 00:01:24.351
spacecraft. During the approach
phase, so we’ll take those

27
00:01:24.351 --> 00:01:27.487
images, we’ll process them,
we’ll figure out very precisely

28
00:01:27.487 --> 00:01:31.391
where Bennu is in the image, and
we’ll take that data and feed it

29
00:01:31.391 --> 00:01:35.062
into our software, along with
some tracking data from the DSN,

30
00:01:35.062 --> 00:01:37.831
range and doppler measurements,
and we’ll figure out our best

31
00:01:37.831 --> 00:01:41.101
estimate of where the spacecraft
is relative to the asteroid and

32
00:01:41.101 --> 00:01:43.203
also where the asteroid is
relative to the rest of the

33
00:01:43.203 --> 00:01:46.707
solar system. And during this
phase, will you be looking out

34
00:01:46.707 --> 00:01:49.543
for any sort of hazards around
the asteroid, like little moons

35
00:01:49.543 --> 00:01:52.713
or dust? Yeah absolutely. We
have specific science

36
00:01:52.713 --> 00:01:55.215
observation campaigns where
they’ll be looking for small

37
00:01:55.215 --> 00:01:58.385
satellite possibilities or
activity on the asteroid. We

38
00:01:58.385 --> 00:02:01.321
don’t expect any of that but
we’ll have to look out for it

39
00:02:01.321 --> 00:02:05.058
just in case. So Lori, I know
your background is planetary

40
00:02:05.058 --> 00:02:08.628
science. As a planetary
scientist, how excited are you

41
00:02:08.628 --> 00:02:11.832
about the OSIRIS-REx mission and
about bringing a sample of an

42
00:02:11.832 --> 00:02:15.335
asteroid back for the first time
for NASA? This is incredibly

43
00:02:15.335 --> 00:02:18.338
exciting. The asteroids are the
building blocks of the solar

44
00:02:18.338 --> 00:02:21.742
system, that’s what built and
made up our planets. They

45
00:02:21.742 --> 00:02:25.545
possibly carry the building
blocks, the molecules that could

46
00:02:25.545 --> 00:02:29.383
lead to life. But even more than
that, most of our missions we

47
00:02:29.383 --> 00:02:33.253
send a satellite to go orbit a
planet or maybe a lander to go

48
00:02:33.253 --> 00:02:36.623
land on the surface. But they
stay there and do their science

49
00:02:36.623 --> 00:02:40.727
at that location. OSIRIS-REx is
going to grab a sample and bring

50
00:02:40.727 --> 00:02:44.831
it back to Earth. And that is
really special and unique. We

51
00:02:44.831 --> 00:02:49.403
can not only analyze that sample
today, but then we can save that

52
00:02:49.403 --> 00:02:52.272
sample and as our knowledge
grows in the future and as our

53
00:02:52.272 --> 00:02:55.809
laboratory capabilities grow in
the future, we can go back and

54
00:02:55.809 --> 00:02:58.812
reanalyze that sample. It will
be there for us to keep learning

55
00:02:58.812 --> 00:03:02.883
from. So OSIRIS-REx launched two
years ago in 2016. It’s finally

56
00:03:02.883 --> 00:03:05.819
starting the approach phase. How
excited are you to get to this

57
00:03:05.819 --> 00:03:08.655
point in the mission? Oh very
exciting. Like you said it’s,

58
00:03:08.655 --> 00:03:11.858
we’ve been preparing for years
for this even before launch. And

59
00:03:11.858 --> 00:03:14.761
kind of planning and testing and
working out what we’re going to

60
00:03:14.761 --> 00:03:17.964
do when we get to the asteroid,
and kind of making assumptions

61
00:03:17.964 --> 00:03:20.967
of what the asteroid will look
like and how it will be. And we

62
00:03:20.967 --> 00:03:23.003
have some pretty good
ground-based estimates, but you

63
00:03:23.003 --> 00:03:25.338
know we won’t know until we
actually get there. And this is

64
00:03:25.338 --> 00:03:28.241
the first time we get to see it
and it’s sort of starting the

65
00:03:28.241 --> 00:03:31.244
proximity operations phase where
we’ll be working in the vicinity

66
00:03:31.244 --> 00:03:34.214
of the asteroid for two years or
more. What do you think would be

67
00:03:34.214 --> 00:03:37.818
the craziest shape you could
imagine the asteroid being? So

68
00:03:37.818 --> 00:03:41.488
right now it’s fairly a benign
shape, it’s kind of bulged in

69
00:03:41.488 --> 00:03:45.459
the center. But if you look at
pictures of 67P

70
00:03:45.459 --> 00:03:47.961
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the
comet, where it’s kind of a

71
00:03:47.961 --> 00:03:50.430
rubber duck, I don’t think it’s
going to be that extreme, but

72
00:03:50.430 --> 00:03:53.266
you never know. I think probably
the worst case it will be really

73
00:03:53.266 --> 00:03:56.636
maybe kind of stretched out more
than we think more top shaped

74
00:03:56.636 --> 00:04:01.508
than spherical. Why would that
be worst case? So, worst case

75
00:04:01.508 --> 00:04:04.711
for us, ‘cause obviously
eventually we have to go down to

76
00:04:04.711 --> 00:04:08.281
the surface and touch it. So if
it’s irregularly shaped, or if

77
00:04:08.281 --> 00:04:11.885
it’s kind of rotating or
spinning a complex way, that we,

78
00:04:11.885 --> 00:04:14.921
it’s hard to characterize. You
know, a nice spherical shape

79
00:04:14.921 --> 00:04:17.390
would be nice for designing
trajectories down to the

80
00:04:17.390 --> 00:04:19.493
surface. And if it’s more
irregular that would be a little

81
00:04:19.493 --> 00:04:21.561
more challenging. Yeah, it would
be nice if the asteroid is

82
00:04:21.561 --> 00:04:24.164
simple and makes it easy for you
guys. Yes, it would, but we

83
00:04:24.164 --> 00:04:26.633
can’t, you know as they say, you
can’t put requirements on the

84
00:04:26.633 --> 00:04:30.337
asteroid. So we’ll have to kind
of adapt our mission to whatever

85
00:04:30.337 --> 00:04:35.008
it gives us, and I think we’re
ready. As Kenny said, the

86
00:04:35.008 --> 00:04:37.711
OSIRIS-REx team is definitely
ready to start this exciting

87
00:04:37.711 --> 00:04:40.914
next phase of the mission.
OSIRIS-REx will arrive at Bennu

88
00:04:40.914 --> 00:04:44.484
in December of this year, 2018,
and then it will spend the next

89
00:04:44.484 --> 00:04:47.754
year and a half studying the
asteroid. In July of 2020,

90
00:04:47.754 --> 00:04:50.824
OSIRIS-REx will collect a sample
from the surface of Bennu, and

91
00:04:50.824 --> 00:04:54.928
then it will deliver that sample
to Earth in 2023. So stay tuned

92
00:04:54.928 --> 00:04:57.364
over the next several months and
years to learn about the

93
00:04:57.364 --> 00:05:00.433
spacecraft’s progress in helping
us unveil the mysteries of our

94
00:05:00.433 --> 00:05:02.068
solar system’s formation.

95
00:05:02.068 --> 00:05:09.309
[music fades out]

96
00:05:09.309 --> 00:05:12.913
[OSIRIS- REx logo]

97
00:05:12.913 --> 00:05:16.183
[satellite swooshes by,
beep beep, beep beep, beep beep]

98
00:05:16.183 --> 00:00:00.000
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
www.nasa.gov/goddard