[slate]
So OSIRIS-REx is
a robotic mission of discovery that will be the first-ever to intercept a small
asteroid, about five football fields across, that we think contains some of the chemistry
the building blocks that seeded the early Earth. And those could
include molecules that we call organic molecules with carbon. We're going to
match velocities with this asteroid, rendezvous with it, map it with a
reconnaissance level that's been unseen for these small bodies
and then carefully select a sample and return that to Earth for the laboratories
to study for generations to come. This is a true mission of discovery.
[slate]
So OSIRIS-REx has been flying for
about a year to vendezous with the asteroid known as Bennu. But to get there
it has to do a slight tweak in its passage around
the sun, by about six degrees and we're going to use good old mother Earth
by flying close to her to just cause the
satellite to pivot a bit as it flies under Antarctica about 11,000 miles
above the Earth and give it the little nudge
to slingshot, to get it to just the right place to match its orbit
with Bennu and allow it to go into a rendezvous stage where it can map Bennu
and then prepare for its sampling events.
[slate]
Bennu is really exciting because A we can get
there. B because we see evidence from telescopic observations
that it contains these magically chemistries that we think
were very important seeding early Earth with the stuff that may have started
life. Organic chemistry. So by going to one of these
types of asteroids and getting to know them, mapping them in exquisite detail
with inferred cameras and lasers and those types
of instruments and then sampling it. Bringing material then back to
Earth to be picked apart with the forensic tools, the magic of modern
science is a phenomenal opportunity
to see that missing record in our Earth history that only these kinds of objects can fill in.
[slate]
So on July 4th 2020
the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will slowly back in
to the asteroid Bennu in the spot chosen before and with its long arm
with a circular disk that acts like a vacuum cleaner, it will sample
up to a couple of pounds of material from the primitive object. Never before
touched by humanity. And in doing so it will collect the samples
encapsulate them in a capsule, a space capsule then
return to Earth for landing near the great Salt Lake in Utah
and then those samples will be carefully unpackaged, all very carefully and safely
and then made available for study in all the laboratories around the
world. For forensic science at its best filling in those missing
pages of the early time of our solar system.
[slate]
OSIRIS-REx to me is the perfect kind of mission.
of discovery that many of us have dreamt of. I mean we saw Apollo
the men walking on the moon returning samples, but doing this all robotically
in a place that would be very hard to send women or men kind of
makes it all very real. And for me personally I've watched this mission since it was first proposed
through these Olympic style competitions for science and engineering
As it came to grow up and become the mission that it is
flying and be actually be selected for flight by NASA
is an incredibly exciting time. For me personally I'm fascinated by cosmic collisions
asteroids make cosmic collisions. Going to capture the bits of
one before they cosmically collide with anything is kind of as good as
gets. So I am just literally dazzled
by the possibilities of this mission and I can't wait for its samples to literally inspire
generations of future scientists to come.
[slate]
To learn more about this mission and all of our voyagers of scientific exploration
please go to www.nasa.gov/osiris
rex. There's also a link for Twitter where we can follow
the action of the spacecraft and please go and follow the
links to all the fascinating science that we're ready to do when OSIRIS-REx
brings home its bounty.